Mind-blowing pictures of Robert De Niro's side profile show how much ears grow with age

We all know Robert De Niro is considered to be one of the greatest actors and film producers to have graced Hollywood, but have you ever noticed his ears are rather large?

I mean, with all his starring roles, it will be pretty easy to miss considering the 81-year-old's stellar career.

Ears growing with age is actually pretty normal, but it's just a side-by-side images of a modern day De Niro and a younger-looking De Niro that has got people noticing it.

Earlier on Tuesday (3 September), two photos of De Niro went viral - one from the 1970s and one from more recently.

"Side profile of Robert De Niro showing how ears grow as we age," the Redditor who posted the images wrote.

Robert De Niro seen earlier this year (MEGA/GC Images)

Many have flocked to the comments section of the Reddit post, with the vast majority shocked at the transformation.

"I had big ears as a child. In my 40s I have enormous ears. If I make it to old age, I’ll be dumbo," one person joked.

Meanwhile, a second added: "Looks like an entirely different person to me, the entire facial and cranial structure is different."

"I'm 28 and my ears are already bigger than the average. I don't like to imagine how it will be in my 60s," a third said.

While this may sound a bit ridiculous, there are actually studies to back up the trend.

Back in June 1993, James Heathcote and a bunch of his GP colleagues decided to prove or even disprove an interesting theory.

The group of medical wizzes picked on 206 of their own patients over the age of 30 to be involved in the study.

Ultimately, they concluded that ears increase on an average of 0.22mm per year, which is equivalent to one centimetre or half an inch.

And to add further validity to the findings, this was done over a period of 50 years.

The actor snapped in 1974 (Paramount Pictures/Getty Images)

The findings were subsequently backed up by spectate studies published in both Japan and Italy.

The 1999 Italian study stated men's ears are on average bigger than women's and that they grow the older we get. I mean, if you already have big ears in your 20s, that's a bit of a worry.

So, why do ears tend to grow the older we get?

Well, the science behind this is a little hazy, with ears sagging as we reach the senior age as one reason provided.

But thanks to the work of many experts, we can say ears often grow as we age.