Did you know?The foot bones are the hardest organs in the human body!
Bone is the strongest scaffold of the human body, its support enables human beings to run and jump, climb, fight, the bone is attached to a variety of muscle tissue, and the muscle tissue wraps the human internal organs, and finally is exposed. Bones are so important, but do you know if bones are exactly the same in different races?
In fact, the human skeleton is not born the same, but is constantly changing as it develops. The number of bones in the human body is also fluctuating. In infancy, human beings have the largest number of bones because their muscles and bones have not yet developed and their bones have not closed, about 305. As we age, the bones of the whole body begin to close gradually, and the number of bones decreases year by year. In adulthood, the bones are fully shaped and the number of bones stabilizes to the 206 that we are familiar with.
The 206 block is the earliest Western understanding of the human skeleton. Although on the surface, human bones seem to be identical, there are still many differences between different races. For example, in terms of quantity, most Chinese have only 204 bones, while Europeans and Americans have 206.
So why do Europeans and Americans have two more bones than Chinese?What are these two extra bones growing in?What are they for?How does the number of bones affect each other, and which is more advanced?In this article, we will take a look at these questions.
It was found that the number of bones in humans was not exactly the same, and the reason for this was a chance experiment by scientists. They examined the bones of 615 Asians and found that only 25 percent had 206 bones, while the remaining 75 percent had only 204 bones. This made the scientists very curious, and after further expanding the experimental sample, it was finally found that most East Asians generally only had 204 bones.
This conclusion is a bit bizarre, so much so that scientists have conducted many rounds of experiments before reluctantly admitting that there are indeed certain differences between different human races. The two mainstream views are that the difference in the number of bones is mainly in the phalanges or hip joints.
(1) Phalanges
The phalanges are the collective name for the bones on the toes. In Western medical books, it is almost always believed that the human hallux has two pieces, and the other toes have three pieces. But in fact, the little toe of Europeans and Americans generally has three segments, while the little toe of Chinese has only two. One section is missing from each of the left and right feet, and exactly two bones are missing.
Europeans and Americans are taller and weigh more than Asians. Western scientists believe that the main reason for this phenomenon is that in the process of evolution, an extra phalange can better increase the weight bearing of the foot and make the body more stable.
There is some truth to this explanation, but Asians are significantly more flexible. Good at climbing and picking, two toes are enough to do all the activities. Because some scientists believe that the yellow race walks with two toes, it just proves that they can complete relatively complex labor with fewer resources, which is obviously a more advanced way of evolution.
These two hypotheses have been debated for a long time, and there is no clear answer to this day.
(2) Hip bone
There is also a theory that there are some differences in the hip joints between Europeans and Americans and Asians. The former has two more cartilages in the hip joint.
The hip joint is located in the middle of a person's waist and pelvis. In early childhood, there is no difference between the hip joint of Europeans and Americans, and as the child grows and develops, the two cartilages in the hip joint of Asians begin to merge, and then a new hip bone is formed. Europeans and Americans, on the other hand, did not undergo this change, so they ended up with these two extra pieces of cartilage.
Again, there is no definitive answer to the difference that the hip bone makes. However, the author believes that the direction of human evolution should be in the direction of fewer and fewer bones. This may also explain why babies and toddlers have a large number of bones, but as they grow, they become less and less. A small number means an evolutionary advantage. Perhaps, Asians are relatively one step ahead in the evolutionary process of human beings.
In fact, there are many differences in bones between different races. Bones are mainly divided into limb skeletons and skulls. Let's decibel to look at the differences between East and West from these two perspectives.
(1) Skull
As we all know, Europeans and Americans generally have high eyebrow bones and deep eye sockets, and many East Asians even hope to have plastic surgery like that. However, in Southeast Asia, South Korea and China are very well developed in medical aesthetics, but Asians who really look like Europeans and Americans are rarely seen. This is because medical aesthetics can only change the skin physiognomy, and the cost of changing the bone physiognomy is too great.
In fact, Asians have wider and larger skulls than Europeans. As a result, many Asians think they are smarter than Europeans. In fact, a larger skull does not mean that it is smarter, and the average person's brain development only accounts for 10% of the brain capacity, which is far from the extent that it is necessary to expand the "hard disk".
(2) Skeleton
Many people think that the skeleton of Europeans and Americans is much larger than that of Asians, but in fact, in terms of skeleton, the skeleton of yellow people is not smaller than that of Europeans and Americans. It's just that since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the Asian region has a large population, but its productivity is low, and it has been slow to develop its country.
Therefore, in terms of nutritional supply, European and American countries have developed faster and have a richer diet, resulting in better development of their next generation. But as Asian countries continue to rise, this disparity will gradually diminish. We can't just look at the technology that Europe and the United States are decades ahead of and ignore the other aspects.
In the case of China and Japan, before the Opium Wars, the average height of the Japanese was much lower than that of China. Before the reform and opening up, the height of Chinese was generally not as tall as that of Europeans and Americans in the same period. However, with the take-off of the Sino-Japanese economy, the height of the children has shown that they are getting taller from generation to generation.
In particular, Japan's nutrition improvement program in the last century has led to a dramatic leap in average height in the last 50 years. This is enough to break the stereotype that East Asians are necessarily short.
In fact, both 206 and 204 bones are different expressions of genes. We can't simply define who is superior and who is inferior. Because there is no qualitative difference between everyone. In other words, innate genes are important, but later efforts should not be underestimated. Instead of dwelling on these unchangeable facts, it's better to work a little harder.