Thick Skull a Survival Trait

Waffle Iron writes "This article at cnn.com reports: 'Scientists say the bulky craniums of the human ancestor, homo erectus, may have helped the species survive some aggressive mating rituals. After studying fossils in a region called Dragon Bone Hill in China, anthropologist Russell Ciochon of the University of Iowa concluded males of the species were clubbing one another over the head, probably to win females.' However, the geekier cavemen may have won out at the end. The article goes on to say: '...evolution eventually favored a lighter skull to accommodate a heavier and larger brain'."

Comments

Me.. No smart?

[E1ven]

Me.. have big skull... Thicker than most friends... This.. Mean me no smart?
Years learning UNIX wasted. Me sad....
Is.. Causal relationship between big skull and dumb man found?

Me tell my college friends who crush beer cans on they head that they are evolving themselves.

I guess I go post a grits now...

Coworkers

[schnits0r]

So that means my coworkers have a higher survival rate?

Someone had to say it, It might as well have been me.

Simpsons pot game

[Bowling Moses]

My roommate and I have thrown several parties for friends of ours who finally got their PhD's. There's more concentrated drunken nerdliness at these things than probably is legal, and at several of them the pot game (from the Simpsons) happens. Two grad students or newly-minted PhD's grab pots from our kitchen and bash heads. So far only one real injury: a cracked but not broken nose (the pots escape undamaged). So if the thicker skull of H. erectus was due to ritualized violence does that mean that the street preacher who came to campus last month was right when he called us a bunch of degenerates?