Adam'a apple

[atron]

Why do men have an adam's apple?

[OBonio]

Something to do with voice breaking I think.

[MargeB]

It's a secondary sexual characteristic, brought on by the presence of testosterone in the bloodstream. The greater the enlargement, the greater the relative amount of testosterone present in a male during development. This will also result in a more pronounced brow, jawline, and cheekbones. This will also make a man slightly meaner, and less likely to hang around to look after children. It is also what evolutionary scientists call a 'peacock's tail'. Whereas some physical characteristics are direct signs of reproductive fitness (e.g. being BIG means you can probably kill more animals, etc), certain features demonstrate fitness because the individual would have to be 'strong' (in a reproductive fitness/survival sense) in order to put up with them. One example is a peacocks tail: a massive handicap against predators, obviously, so the larger it is, the better able the individual is in other ways to avoid predators. The adam's apple is such a device. The larger it is, the greater the amount of testosterone. Testosterone damages the body's immune system and it takes a stronger individual to thrive when it is present in greater quantities.

In terms of sexual selection, the theory (and actually experiments back this up) goes as follows.

WOMEN LOOKING FOR LONG TERM RELATIONSHIP: go for men with softer, more rounded faces, since they have less testosterone, and are more likely to be caring, and will stick around to look after the kids, a big bonus in evolutionary terms

WOMEN LOOKING FOR  A SHORT TERM RELATIONSHIP: go for men with the aforementioned 'harsher' facial characteristics. Since the guy isn't going to stick around anyway, most likely, she may as well get herself some dam strong genes (as explained above).

[MargeB]

WOMEN ON THE PILL: The above differences in selection are probably mediated in women by oestrogen, since women on the pill exhibit none of the above differences in preference, and oestrogen action is radically altered by the pill.

That said, the effects will be moderated to some degree by modern cultural values, but basically still hold strong.

I have refs for all of this if you want them.

So...that's what the adam's apple's for.

[BigDogsWang]

Apparently transsexuals like to have theirs 'planed', as in shaved, to look more feminine.

Ouch.

[secretsquiz]

BigDogsWang? do i know you???

this afternoon i've been in a bizarre email conversation with some mates on the very same subject - adam's apple shaving.

if people are interested, here's an article about the procedure...

http://www.chet-plasticsurgery.com/trachea.html

[MargeB]

I feel terribly sorry in a sense for some transexuals when I see them: they clearly have done a lot to try and pull it off (sorry) and ...men must just have a very skilled toolkit (sorry) for picking out female features. And I can never put my finger on what it is...jawline, collarbones, shoulders, upper arm, hands...it's very difficult to make a man look like like a woman, in my opinion.

[Peter Pedant]

I think we all have one

It separates the windpipe (trachea) from the gullet (oesphagus), so if you check even your little doggie (or cat, or emu) will have one. On the outside you will find the thyroid and a few other things and on the inside, the voice-box (larunx) modidfied in man for speech.