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by Jenk 1625 days ago
Regarding teeth, one thought is that over/underbite was less frequent before cutlery became commonplace. Our ancestors had to bite/tear their food using their incisors and canines a lot more than we do, which meant their jaws would strengthen in the biting position - thus with their lower and upper incisors aligned.

Personally I wonder if this would affect speech as well, so perhaps out ancestors sounded different too?

1 comments

there is a theory that "modern" overbite lent itself to pronouncing f and v sounds, which are more tricky with perfectly lined up teeth

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/ability-pronou...