December 9, 2013

Wisdom tooth : ironic name? (genetic reference)

Wisdom tooth is named so, because the teeth usually develop in the age of 17-25 yrs. when people are supposedly becoming wise in college (hah! How false is that!)
Anyway, I found another interesting irony in this, a genetic one. While reading through some material, I came across that there is evidence that the pre-historic human walked on 4 limbs & had a wide jaw to catch prey. As the pre-historic human evolved the skull & jaw structure changed, started walking on 2 limbs, hands became the primary source of food catching & the brain grew larger, leaving a smaller jaw & ultimately less space for teeth. Which effectively is the reason that wisdom teeth have become vestigial.
Nobody needs 32 teeth for eating processed soft foods!

Brain grows larger, humans gets smarter (wiser, for the sake of irony) & that leads to wisdom teeth!

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