Actually, my training is in economics and mathematics and I do
research in social and economic systems as complex, adaptive systems
(a glimpse of what I do is in last week's The New Yorker (Mar 31,
1997)).  I was a professor at Texas A & M.  I have read much of
Vaughan Bryant's research, but I disavow any knowledge or experience
with coprolites (did I even spell it right?).

Turning from the scatological to evolutionary psychology, I have
this question to pose.

I think it is evident that the female attitude toward men with
"weak chins" lies somewhere between indifference and contemp.
Unlike the many studies of male preference for female waist to hip
ratio studies (where it is shown that there is a strong preference
for small ratios, but not too small), I know of no studies on this
aspect of male physiology).  Am I right on this aspect of female
sexual selectiveness?

If this is the case, and I have little doubt that it is, does a
weak chin indicate poor nutritional status of the male as a child
and, therefore, represent information about skeletal and other
deficiencies that spell low capability?

Or is it a throwback to a period when the prominent chin of homo
sapiens was beginning to be a clue to "good" genes?  If this is so,
then sexual selection could readily have accelerated the transition
from homo habilis to homo sapiens.

Arthur De Vany
Professor
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