this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2024
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Today I Learned

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[–] Beardsley@lemmy.world 160 points 4 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

Idk, I was assured that pigs had a chinny-chin-chin.

[–] Repelle@lemmy.world 64 points 4 months ago (5 children)

Growing up half Japanese I could never help laughing at that story as chinchin means penis in Japanese, and I think everyone should share in this amusement.

[–] TexasDrunk@lemmy.world 26 points 4 months ago (2 children)

"Not by the hair on my dick, fuckface!"

I think Green Jellÿ should use that.

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[–] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 23 points 4 months ago

That's the exact lead in of the Atlantic article about this (paywall)

[–] blindbunny@lemmy.ml 92 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Have you seen humans without chins? That's why

[–] Rognaut@lemmy.world 116 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)
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[–] datavoid@lemmy.ml 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

My grandma said I was the most handsome boy... Are you calling my dead grandmother a liar?!

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[–] Linkerbaan@lemmy.world 77 points 4 months ago (2 children)
[–] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 12 points 4 months ago

Truly superhuman.

[–] mearce@programming.dev 69 points 4 months ago (1 children)

TIL chins are only chins because they stick out. I had always considered the front of a lower jaw to be a "chin".

[–] Blackrook7@lemmy.world 24 points 4 months ago

In other words some people really have no chin...

[–] cabron_offsets@lemmy.world 67 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 65 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Of course we know why. So that evolution could result in the universe's most perfect being.

[–] MossyFeathers@pawb.social 62 points 4 months ago (16 children)

This is why it bothers me when artists add chins to animalistic characters. It looks so wrong. An example:

Like, shit. Cool character design but you gave the cat lady a chin. Cats don't have chins, why did you give her a chin?

[–] lauha@lemmy.one 131 points 4 months ago (3 children)

They don't have opposable thumbs, go into night clubs, walk bipedally or have those wing things either, why is it the chin that bothers you?

That character is mostly a cat skinned human.

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[–] odelik@lemmy.today 18 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

You're complaining about a chin on an anthropomorphic cat woman that only has 2 breast's instead of 6 to 8...

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[–] this_1_is_mine@lemmy.world 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Why does it look like she has nipple piercings that couldn't be contained.

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[–] erp@lemmy.world 54 points 4 months ago (2 children)

If I am not mistaken, according to the grammatical scrolls, having a chin makes everyone .. chinese

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 11 points 4 months ago

More chins than a Chinese phone book.

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[–] Pulptastic@midwest.social 41 points 4 months ago

If other animals don't have chins, they're using a weird definition of chin.

[–] jimmydoreisalefty@lemmy.world 35 points 4 months ago (2 children)

“If you're looking across all of the hominids, which is the family tree after the split with chimpanzees, there [are] not really that many traits that we can point to that we can say are exclusively human,” Duke University’s James Pampush tells Robert Siegel for NPR. “[T]hose animals all walked on two legs. The one thing that really sticks out is the chin.”

One of the most popular ideas is that our ancestors evolved chins to strengthen our lower jaws to withstand the stresses of chewing. But according to Pampush, the chin is in the wrong place to reinforce the jaw. As for helping us speak, he doubts that the tongue generates enough force to make this necessary. A third idea is that the chin could help people choose mates, but sexually selective features like this typically only develop in one gender, Pampush tells Siegel.

The spandrel hypothesis is as good a theory as any, but it too has its problems. It’s hard to find evidence to test if something is an evolutionary byproduct, especially if it doesn’t serve an obvious function. But if researchers one day do manage to figure out where the chin came from, it could put together another piece of the puzzle of what makes us different from our primate and Neanderthal cousins, Yong writes.

[–] andyburke@fedia.io 34 points 4 months ago (2 children)

The dismissal of a sexually selected trait just because it usually is far more pronounced in one sex than the other seems extemely premature to me.

I would argue chins are actually already quite different between the sexes - to the point where people will have surgery to change their appearance if their chin doesn't conform to societal ideals.

Sexually selected trait seems like an avenue of research that shouldn't be so easily dismissed.

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[–] FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today 31 points 4 months ago

I figure walking upright made being hit from below more common, necessitating thicker bones to protect the very sensitive nerves of the jaw.

[–] Twinkletoes@lemm.ee 28 points 4 months ago (8 children)

Some humans even have double

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[–] Thcdenton@lemmy.world 25 points 4 months ago
[–] OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee 24 points 4 months ago (3 children)

The "spandrel hypothesis" is the front runner explanation. Essentially we didn't evolve to have chins but rather evolved other things that are helpful, and the chin is a byproduct of that other evolution. Not harmful so it didn't get selected away, but not helpful.

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[–] ArmokGoB@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 4 months ago
[–] MindTraveller@lemmy.ca 20 points 4 months ago

All of the the three little pigs had a chinny chin chin

[–] SankaraStone@lemmy.world 20 points 4 months ago (19 children)

Would you mate with somebody who didn't have a chin? Chins are sexy.

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[–] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 15 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Useful in fighting as it helps protect the lower jaw and teeth?

But then again, it could simply be a trait we have developed over the millennia, and there is no deeper meaning to it.

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[–] Snowpix@lemmy.ca 11 points 4 months ago

TIL LeafyIsHere isn't human after all...

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