Approximately 10,000 years ago, certain human groups began to rely on diets derived from domesticated plants and animals rather than acquiring wild sources of food via hunting, gathering, and foraging. This transition in subsistence economy occurred independently in several global regions, with particular starchy crops (e.g., wheat, barley, rice, maize, etc.) becoming staple food sources in different continents (1). The profound effects of the transition to agriculture on the biology of modern humans cannot be overstated. These effects include an increased tendency to stay in a single place for extended periods of time, changes in weaning practices, increases in the incidence of infectious disease, and increased fecundity, leading ultimately to an explosion in the global human population (2, 3). Without the development of horticultural and animal-rearing practices, it would not be possible to sustain the enormous population of humans alive on the planet today. Anthropologists have long been interested in the effects of this shift in subsistence strategy from a genetic, morphological, social, and medical perspective. Agricultural diets are, in general, less variable, higher in starch and sugars, and lower in protein compared with forager diets, resulting in a suite of health-related problems such as anemia, dental caries, vitamin deficiencies, and malnutrition (4, 5). Agricultural diets are also softer, on average, meaning that they are mechanically less demanding in terms of chewing than forager diets. Anthropologists have noted for some time that even prehistoric farmers had more gracile crania and lower jaws (mandibles) than foragers, which can be summarized by Carlson and Van Gerven’s (6) “masticatory-functional hypothesis.” This hypothesis explains the observed changes through time in Nubian cranial morphology (Fig. 1) in terms of reduced biomechanical stress from chewing softer agricultural foods (5, 7). Now, in PNAS, Katz et al. (8) add novel evidence in support … [↵][1]1Email: noreenvo{at}buffalo.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1
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