Buffalo Human Evolutionary Morphology Lab (BHEML)

Two skulls with the hedline: Ancient switch to soft food gave us an overbite—and the ability to pronounce ‘f’s and ‘v’s

The spread of agriculture didn’t just change our diets—it altered our jaws as well, making it easy to pronounce "f"s and "v"s and opening a whole new world of words.

Learn more on #WorldAnthropologyDay: https://scim.ag/4rHq0k1

That's us!

Humans are the only primates with a chin – now we finally know why Biologists have debated the reason why Homo sapiens evolved a prominent lower jaw, but this unique feature may actually be a by-product of other traits shaped by natural selection

BHEML makes headlines yet again! Our PI Dr. Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel was interviewed by New Scientist magazine on her work investigating the human chin, which can also be found in her most recent PLOS One publication. Take a look!

www.newscientist.com/article/2515...

Is the human chin a spandrel? Insights from an evolutionary analysis of ape craniomandibular form Humans are unique among primates in possessing a chin, yet it is currently unclear whether the form of the symphyseal region of the mandible where the chin is located is the product of direct selectio...

Nuestro popular mentón parece que evolucionó como consecuencia de reducción de los dientes anteriores y cambios craneofaciales, no como adaptación específica.
Is the human chin a spandrel? Insights from an evolutionary analysis of ape craniomandibular form journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

University at Buffalo named a top producer of U.S. Fulbright scholars UB is one of 25 institutions nationwide to receive the designation.

President Tripathi: #UBuffalo’s standing as a top-producing institution of Fulbright Scholars is a testament to the exceptional caliber of our faculty and our steadfast commitment to international engagement. We are immensely proud of our Fulbright Scholars. www.buffalo.edu/news/release...

2026 Mid-Career Service Award: Doug Boyer, Duke University. Dr. Boyer is recognized for his efforts to create and maintain the MorphoSource repository for digital 3D data. This publicly available community resource has revolutionized the study of primate morphology and fostered open science in biological anthropology and beyond.

Join us in congratulating our outstanding members who have received the prestigious AABA annual awards for 2026.

The 2026 Mid-Career Service Award award recipient is Doug Boyer!

What the heck are chins for? A human characteristic that remains an enduring evolutionary enigma.

The history of evolutionary ideas about chins took me to Darwin, Pliny the Elder, Stephen Jay Gould, and Theodore Roosevelt. It's an irresistable subject that has befuddled scientists all this time.

www.johnhawks.net/p/what-the-h...

Is the human chin a spandrel? Insights from an evolutionary analysis of ape craniomandibular form Humans are unique among primates in possessing a chin, yet it is currently unclear whether the form of the symphyseal region of the mandible where the chin is located is the product of direct selectio...

New paper by PI Dr. Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel and former BHEML postdoc Dr. Lauren Schroeder! The human chin is a unique; investigating why and how it formed helps us to better understand ourselves and our lineage!

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Green and blue 3D rendering of the Taung (Australopithecus africanus) endocast

Check out this new JHE paper coauthored by BHEML member Grace Bocko, which reanalyzes the Taung (A. africanus) brain endocast in comparison with modern chimpanzee and human brains. This paper is another step toward better understanding hominin brain evolution!

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The Food Chain - Crunch! - BBC Sounds Why we like crunchy foods, and what benefits they might have

Our Dr. Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel was interviewed alongside others to investigate the human love of crunchy food for BBC podcast series, The Food Chain. Tune in to hear her discuss how the transition from foraging to farming impacted the way our jaws develop and grow!

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...