Even 3.7 million years ago, Justin Bieber’s hominid ancestors still had that hair.

Click here for photos of Bieber, other celebs devolved.



The rest of those teen-idol looks get lost, though, in the gnarled skin, hulking forehead and scrunched nose. It’s an online lesson in how we’re all the same under the skin, as taught by Britain’s Open University.

The distance-learning pioneers have created a morphing device that lets people see what they would have looked like in various, very early stages of evolution.

“The four periods were chosen in the main because we have the best imagery, the best fossil examples,” said Colin Morris, head of online marketing at Open University. “We liaised with our academics to determine what a typical person looks like.”

The features look increasingly distinct as the four stages progress, but our australopithecus afarensis ancestors 3.7 million years ago seem to have suspiciously similar noses.

“People do look pretty similar” at that stage, Morris admitted. “We wanted it to be accurate. That’s why we added the slider to see yourself in mid-morph.”

With 800,000 visitors so far, Devolve Me is proving to be a surprisingly popular device for understanding evolution.

“It’s a blend between the striking visuals and good academics,” said Morris.

The evolution of your mug shot will also remake you as homo habilis 2.2 million years ago, homo erectus 1.8 million years ago and homo heidelbergensis a mere 500,000 years ago.

“One of the things we have been so pleased with is the viral effects. It’s been great to see what people are saying about each other.”

The Open University, founded in 1969, offers distance-learning courses, most of which require no prior academic qualifications.