Monday, April 23, 2018

What Your Nose Knows

 

What Your Nose Knows 

Skin pigmentation is usually our primary indicator of where a person comes from. We may not realize it, but the shape of our nose can indicate which region of the world we come from as well. Different regions of the world vary in local climate conditions; being anywhere from below sub-zero to 134 degrees. Our noses are specifically designed to compensate for the various temperatures/humidities. In most cases, people who have wider nostrils come from warmer climates whereas people with more narrow nostrils come from colder climates. Northern Europeans, living in cold climates, tend to have more narrow nostrils. Narrow nostrils was a naturally selected favorable trait because they are more efficient in humidifying cold, dry air. I never really thought about my nose for a use other than smelling, now I know it is an indicator of where I’m from.




4 comments:

  1. I recently sat in a seminar with an anthropologist who stated she can tell the ethnicity of a skeleton by their nose structure, but I never knew why!

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  2. I always joke about how anybody can tell that I am greek and my family is greek by our noses! It is so interesting that the shapes of our noses have a correlation with temperature! Who would have thought that?

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  3. I had no idea this was an evolutionary trend in our morphology, how interesting! I wonder if we can trace back family trees based on nose shape alone?

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  4. I was in the same seminar class where the anthrolpologist mentioned that. It is kind of hard to understand how the identity of a person can be identified by their nose.

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