The Evolving Human Face

We look in the mirror daily, but next time you catch a glimpse of your face, stop for a second and think about all the millions of years of evolution that have gone into shaping it.

To help you wrap your head around it a bit better, paleontologist John Gurche created this time-lapse that takes you on a visual tour of just how far we’ve come as a species, focusing specifically on modern Anglo-Saxon faces.

The video was released back in 2013, and scientists have moved things around on the human family tree a little since then thanks to new discoveries, but these recreations and the impact they have is still very much as relevant as it was then.

Watch closely as the changes at the beginning are very subtle.