Michael Harper for RedOrbit.com
Americans are known to be a large, boisterous, get-your-own kind of people. Look at our heritage: Our ancestors didn’t like to be pushed around and told how to live, so they just left to start their own country. We wanted to spread across the nation, so we headed off to the West on our own. We’re a proud nation built on a do-it-yourself mentality. As such, is it so hard to believe that we have a big head when it comes to our achievements?
Actually, it shouldn’t be that hard to believe. In fact, it’s even been confirmed. In a new study conducted at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Americans’ heads really are getting bigger.
Lee Jantz, coordinator of UT’s Forensic Anthropology Center (FAC); Richard Jantz, professor emeritus and former director of the FAC; and Joanne Devlin, adjunct assistant professor, examined 1,500 skulls dating as far back as the mid-1800s all the way through the mid-1980s. As they conducted their research, they noticed American skulls became larger, taller and narrower as time progressed. As a result, the faces on the skulls also became significantly narrower and higher.
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