4 ms·
> but then what's the advantage for women to have a higher pitched voice? Living in a neighborhood with a lot of teenagers, I will dare a guess; this loud, hig
by ani87 9y ago
> but then what's the advantage for women to have a higher pitched voice?
Living in a neighborhood with a lot of teenagers, I will dare a guess; this loud, high pitched scream was probably a very efficient call for help.
But I see your point, and I agree that the answer could be just as simple as randomness of genetics. It just feels rather unsatisfactory for a change who must have taken far more than one single mutation to be that common. Feels like someone winning the lottery a dozen times in a row.
- erroneousfunk 9y agoKnown genes associated with hip bone size in women (but not men) are found on chromosome 2 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2522269/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2522269/). But the expression of those genes is likely controlled by estrogen (http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/04/woman-s-pelvis-narrows-she-ages http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/04/woman-s-pelvis-narrow...) Individuals who have androgen insensitivity syndrome (XY chromosomes, but that don't respond to testosterone and are, for most intents and purposes, sterile females) will have large hips/pelvic bones. So, yes, hip size takes a few modified base pairs (although probably all within one gene, or pretty close together on the same chromosome), but evolution only needs to "decide" (heavy emphasis on the quotes there) that this physiological change is hormonally triggered. Many skeletal changes are hormonally triggered, so this may have even been the easiest/most likely path.