Full, luxurious beards signal a certain machismo vibe but they have served a practical historical purpose — cushioning the impact of a punch to the jaw, much like the way the mane of a dominant lion protects a big cat's throat against a rival's lethal claws and teeth. So did beards evolve for that very reason?
To test that idea, the scientists built models that approximated the structure of bone in a human skull.
They cut the bony material into bricks and wrapped them in sheepskin fleece, "because it was not practical to obtain fully bearded skin samples from human cadavers," the researchers wrote.
Two types of sheepskin coverings were used — furred samples, where the sheep's wool was left at its full length and sheared samples to represent a beardless jaw.
