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<DIV>From the <A
href="http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/2466236">Houston
Chronicle</A>: Touching off a scientific furor, researchers say they may have
discovered the mutation that caused the earliest humans to branch off from their
apelike ancestors -- a gene that led to smaller, weaker jaws and, ultimately,
bigger brains. <BR>Smaller jaws would have fundamentally changed the structure
of the skull, they contend, by eliminating thick muscles that worked like bungee
cords to anchor a huge jaw to the crown of the head. The change would have
allowed the cranium to grow larger and led to the development of a bigger brain
capable of tool-making and language. <BR>The mutation is reported in the latest
issue of the journal Nature, not by anthropologists, but by a team of biologists
and plastic surgeons at the University of Pennsylvania and the Children's
Hospital of Philadelphia. The report provoked strong reactions throughout the
hotly contested field of human origins with one scientist declaring it "counter
to the fundamentals of evolution" and another pronouncing it
"super."</DIV></BODY></HTML>