Researchers from the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology (IVPP) at the Research Center for Chinese Frontier Archaeology, a branch of the Chinese Academy of Science at Jilin University, have found that in the last 10,000 years, the physical characteristics of Chinese people have undergone many changes.

Dr. Wu Xue Jie from the IVPP said experts in the research team tested, analyzed and compared 718 skulls belonging to Chinese adult males who lived during the New Stone Age, the Bronze Age and modern times. They discovered that Chinese people's craniums and viscerocraniums are getting smaller; their noses and eye sockets are becoming narrower; and their skulls are becoming more rounded.

The reason people's skulls grew smaller during the Holocene epoch are not known and this will be the subject of further study. However, Dr. Lu believes the changes are most likely related to climate, flow of population, production systems and lifestyle.

By People's Daily Online