From a biological/evolutionary/scientific perspective, could dog headed men have existed?
Let me start by saying I'm looking at this from more of a hypothetical perspective, not really focusing on historical/archaeological evidence, which Is why I don't think this belongs on /x/. Some of you may have heard of the rumors of men with dog-like heads in india. The common word for this presumably mythological race is "Cynocephaly". There are older and younger accounts of human bodies with dog heads, some from as early as ~500bc.
My question is: is it possible there were once men with prolonged faces like that of dogs? The depictions featured in my OP are based on the accounts of others, I don't believe they had heads exactly like a dog, but rather a prolonged face.
My justification for this? Monke. As shown in the top left of pic related, some ape species have very canine-like features, with shallow foreheads and prolonged faces .Is it possible there was a race of intelligent abhumans with prolonged faces and small foreheads like that of baboons or black macaques? would a creature with human proportions (long legs, arm span equal to height, upright) have human intelligence with such a skull shape?
Let me clarify again that this is not a question of whether or not they DID exist, because the well saturated archeological community inEgypt, India, Greece, and Chinashows they did not. This is a question of COULD they exist, with a human intelligence and tribal social structure capable of trade with regular humans (as described by the most interesting accounts of dog people in India).
Is it possible to speak human languages with a canine-like snout? Does the shallow forehead of a baboon have enough room for a brain similar in power to that of a human? My favorite account of this from India states that only the men had dog-like faces, and the women were relatively normal. Could sexual dimorphism be that extreme in such a species?