This tool is donation based and free. 🙏 We're looking for donations to keep it running — $360/year covers our server costs.

$18 of $360 · 5%
Donate
This fact check is over a month old. Newer information may be available — consider rechecking.

Is it true early humans had a bite force equivalent to go...

“is it true early humans had a bite force equivalent to gorillas and can a female neanderthal with basic training beat a professional arm wrestler?”
Both false
Confidence: High Checked on July 19, 2026

Summary

Early hominin bite forces were modestly higher than modern humans but far below gorilla levels, so they were not equivalent to gorilla bite force. There is no credible evidence that a female Neanderthal with only basic training could reliably defeat a professional arm‑wrestler; such claims are speculative and unsupported.

Recheck this fact Runs a fresh check with up-to-date sources

Sources 60 searched

sciencedirect.com
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  • Bite force production and the origin of Homo - PMC - NIH

    Models of fossil hominins and chimpanzees were assigned properties averaged from one chimpanzee and one gorilla from 14 homologous locations across the craniofacial skeleton (average E = approx. 17 GPa) [28], while the human models were assigned properties averaged from two modern human specimens from the same 14 sites plus 15 additional sites (average E = approx. 21 GPa) [29]. Bone material properties in chimpanzees and human crania are broadly similar [108] and these are the extant taxa that phylogenetically bracket early hominins, so our assumptions about bone material properties are reasonable.

  • Tooth chipping can reveal the diet and bite forces of fossil hominins - PMC

    Solid line is a least squares best fit (red circle, P. boisei; red square, P. robustus; red triangle, A. afarensis; red diamond, A. africanus; inverted triangle, Homo erectus; blue circle, Homo sapiens; blue triangle, Gorilla spp.; blue square, Pongo spp.; blue diamond, Pan troglodytes; blue inverted triangle, Macaca spp.). Table 1 compares bite forces Pmax calculated from equation (3.1) for fossil hominins as well as for extant primates and peccaries, using averaged molar sizes D (Demes & Creel 1988), with PF calculated from equation (2.1), using the highest measured h (see table S1).

dental.nyu.edu
etheses.whiterose.ac.uk
fitpro.com
  • Where have all the strongmen gone? - FitPro Blog

    With these mechanical advantages, our Neanderthal female was almost unbeatable in two arm wrestling techniques, the hook and the top roll. This was not taking into account the potential differences in muscle fibre types, where our ancient cousin ...

smithsonianmag.com
  • Could a Modern Human Beat a Neanderthal in a Fight?

    Slate concludes that there’s no way of knowing who would win this battle but cautions that against other potential enemies—such as Homo heidelbergensis, who grew more than seven feet tall and had a tendency towards cannibalism, or Paranthropus boisei, who is described as “a gorilla head on a human body”—a human’s odds likely wouldn’t be quite as high, regardless of wit and training. ... Neanderthal Kids Grew Up So Fast—at Least Compared With Their Human Peers—Thanks to Genetic Adaptations to Their Environment

boards.straightdope.com

This fact check is free and donation-based. $1 powers ~30 fact-checks.

Donate $1 to support fact-checking

Check another fact