Muscle mutation made humans, according to reports in Nature vol. 428, p373, 25 March 2004, Nature Science Update and New Scientist 27 March 2004, p7. The strongest muscles in the body (taking into account relative size) are the jaw muscles used for biting. Hansell Stedman of the University of Pennsylvania and colleagues have studied genes for a muscle contraction protein named myosin in jaw muscles of monkeys, apes and humans. They found that the human gene for myosin has two less base pairs than the corresponding part of monkey myosin gene. This difference makes the human jaw muscle weaker than the monkey muscle. Stedman concluded that a mutation in a gene for myosin occurred in some apes, resulting in smaller weaker jaw muscles. The weaker muscles would have required a less extensive attachment site over the side of the skull and exerted less force on the skull. This would have allowed the skull and the brain to grow from chimp size to man size. (Human brains are approximately three times the size of chimp brains.)
Editorial Comment: This research made it onto the front cover of Nature because it claimed to be evidence for apes evolving into humans, but it is really a classic example of how to make an evolutionary mountain from an observed molehill. The only scientifically observed fact here is that the human myosin gene is two nucleotides different from the ape and monkey genes. No-one actually observed the monkey DNA changing to the human gene, so there is no evidence that the difference in the two genes was caused by a mutation. The word “mutation” is grossly over-used in evolutionist literature because mutations are believed to be the source of genetic information. Usually they are simply describing differences or variations in genes. Furthermore, the evolutionists fail to explain how providing a less robust braincase has any effect on the complex process of growing a bigger and more complex brain. (Ref. myosin, muscle gene)