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Asked by olivermcgowen to Andrew, Ash, Gem, Paige, SJ on 28 Jun 2012.
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Paige Brown answered on 28 Jun 2012:
Gosh, I think that perhaps most higher animals have a face, which is centered around the sense organs like eyes. It makes sense that both of your eyes would be located in the same area, to give you depth of vision and a clear view of the world. After your eyes, it makes sense that your other senses, like your nose and ears, and your mouth for eating, would be located in the same general area as your eyes so that you could see what you are eating and so that you could synthesize information from all of your senses together to make sense of the world!!! Then, of course, our eyes, ears, nose, and mouth are close to our brains to bring us all this information quickly! So there you go… I guest we just needed a place on the body where all of our senses come together!
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SarahJayne Boulton answered on 30 Jun 2012:
The evolution of our faces was a consequence of the evolution of a head!
Almost all higher organisms have a head, or more like a region where a combination of food and information goes in, this was all organised by a group of genes called Hox (sometimes called the ‘Hox Box’ as there are loads of genes associated with it!). Hox controls the layout of an organism from head to foot, and it triggers the formation of the eyes, ears, a brain (of sorts), a nose and a mouth in the ‘head’ region.
The Face came about as these features were organised into their most logical layout. Eyes at the top so snot and food doesn’t fall into them, nose above the hard palate of the mouth so that mouth and tongue movements don’t interfere with the airways. Ears where ever they give the best field of hearing. Generally faces are arranged this way.
It may well be the perception of attractiveness in a mate that drove the evolution of our modern, really quite refined faces from the deep set and heavy browed faces we see in our less evolved ancestors – clearly there were continental differences too, I love how diverse peoples faces are – I especially love freckles!
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Gemma Staite answered on 1 Jul 2012:
I think SJ and Paige have this nailed. I’d never thought of it before
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