AHS18

Anthropologists have long reported that human craniofacial volumes have been diminishing since the advent of agriculture in the Middle East some 10-12,000 kya. Pre-industrial skeletal specimens reveal that H. sapiens had spent nearly their entire 250+ kya existence with wide palates, nasal cavities and faces. Soft tissues, such as brains and tongues, do not often get preserved within the fossil record, but anthropologists can nonetheless accurately infer brain and tongue volumes from the osseous structures that had been lifelong occupied by each of them. Given that functioning/resting tongues should help develop and occupy the palatal vault in a similar manner as do growing brains develop/occupy the cranial vault, it can also be accurately inferred that AMH’s had lived with well-postured and properly functioning tongues for the hundreds of thousands of years that had preceded the Industrial Revolution, which also implies optimal respiratory competence (i.e., habitual nose-breathing during wakefulness and sleep).