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And rotifers also have a specialized masticatory apparatus -- "teeth" -- that the team hypothesized could grind microplastics into smaller particles.

Intriguingly, roasting meat actually increased the masticatory force required.

Homo erectus, the first hominin to even begin to approach modern humans in stature, brain size and masticatory apparatus, appeared around 1.5 million years earlier than that.

That’s an entire month spent not chewing — presumably enough to explain the reduction in tooth size and masticatory muscle mass of H. erectus compared with earlier, more masticatory species, as well as the increase in brain size allowed by the release of more nutrients.

One sign that cooking shaped our ancestors’ genomes as well as our guts is that humans, Neandertals, and Denisovans all have lost a masticatory myosin gene, MYH16, that helps build strong chewing muscles in the jaws of chimps.