Eli5: How come all animals look like each other (ex. You won’t tell the difference between 2 squirrels) but humans differ so heavily? Why do humans have so many unique facial an body features?

Question

Eli5: How come all animals look like each other (ex. You won’t tell the difference between 2 squirrels) but humans differ so heavily? Why do humans have so many unique facial an body features?

In: Biology

Answer 1

I’m sure this isn’t the *only* answer, but:

Many animals rely on other cues for communication, mate selection, etc. A squirrel may attract a mate using pheromones or its own special scent, while humans attract mates by looking pretty (among other things). Primates can convey a lot of body language through facial expression, so it’s no surprise that the face is very important in our body language, which broadly includes attraction. A lot of development goes into facial features, which in turn leads to a diversity of face types.

Many other animals already have ways of communicating: scents, noises, etc, so from an evolutionary perspective having body/face diversity wasn’t necessary.