"The better to smell you with!"
Posted on 01/14/2011 4:16:53 PM PST by decimon
A mystery of Neanderthals for more than a century is one that's literally as plain as the noses on their faces - why did they have such big schnozes?
One common answer suggests their faces somehow helped our extinct relatives deal with the extreme cold they faced. Now, however, scientists find that Neanderthal faces were not built for the cold - meaning that no one still knows why Neanderthals had such noses.
The enigma that such a large nose poses is that it seems like an excellent way to lose heat - a paradox, given that Neanderthals lived when glaciers dominated Europe. Modern humans and other animals, in contrast, typically have evolved significantly narrower, longer noses in cold climates. [The Many Mysteries of Neanderthals]
Scientists have tried solving this mystery by suggesting there were equally giant sinuses behind the broad noses. Some proposed the sinuses helped warm the air before it entered the lungs so Neanderthals were able to keep their bodies warm. Others speculated the sinuses actually had the exact opposite function, helping Neanderthals rid their bodies of heat, preventing them from drenching in sweat that could have cooled them off even more.
"The $64,000 question is what sinuses do - that is, what is their biological function. Scientists have been arguing over that for hundreds of years," researcher Todd Rae, a paleoanthropologist at Roehampton University in London, wrote in an e-mail. "There are dozens of suggestions for what they may do for the animals that have them, including adding resonance to the voice and acting as flotation devices!"
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
"The better to smell you with!"
To help them smell..the reason big noses help all predator species.
Now I want a grant.
Neanderthals had bad eyes and needed big noses to hold up those thick glasses they wore. But their glasses fogged up in the glacial cold and blinded the Neanderthals so they all were killed.
Can I have my grant check now?
Alls I knows is that they all left our neighborhood. No Ne-ans in da hood no more.
Who dat has a ne-an neighbor?
You are correct: It has to do with dryness versus humidity, not cold versus heat. That is why desert peoples have large noses. Another half-baked article by yahoo. I’m not sure about all your specifics but the nose is there to hydrate the air before it goes farther.
wow, I’ve never seen a young jimmy durante. he looked like pete townshend of “the who”.
LOL. I used to watch JD on TV in the 50's.
It’s all coming oh so fast.
I’m still looking for the Kosovo monkey man.
That is from the bar scene in Roxanne..
'The Neanderthal Nose Enigma: Why So Big?'
So his contention is that Neandertals = Cro-Magnons?
A simple way to remedy this is to get a humidifier or put on the stove very low a kettle with water in it to slowly evaporate into your home. I do this and put cinnamon and cloves in it and my house smells like apple pie. Even at work you can get a small humidifier by your primary area and humidify your personal space. At my old job my office had a large humidifier for the whole area as everyone realized that this made them much more comfortable and kept them far healthier.
It also warms and filters the air. Nose hair helps filter out impurities. Many people believe that nose breathing is very important to good health. This may have something to do with why people may have longer noses. Here is just one one countless sites that is interesting about the importance of breathing through the nose and therefore how important the nose actually is. It is possible that Neanderthal with his larger brain capacity and bigger nose was a more intelligent and adept human than we.
http://www.breathing.com/articles/nose-breathing.htm
Nose Breathing
Breathing through the nose has many benefits. Breathing through the mouth, many negatives. There are some researchers who believe that mouth breathing and associated hyperventilation causes or exacerbates asthma, high blood pressure, heart disease, and many other medical problems........
I don’t spend much time at home or in an office.
Athletes often use those nose strips to open up their noses for better breathing. I suspect modern human noses are insufficient for prolonged physical exertion and that neanderthals did not need nose strips.
I don't know your situation but at the very least you can have a misting bottle that you use around you fairly often and/or also you can get one of those little plastic bottles in the pharmacy that contain a solution to squeeze into your nose as a mist and refill it often with water, keep it close and when you are in a private place such as a bathroom or car give your nose a quick mist. I know what those winter sinus infections can be like and I know a little extra moisture is all that is needed to avoid them.
Hey, not a bad idea for an invention would be a small humidifier that plugs into the car outlet as it is not pleasant or healthy getting dried out from forced hot air blowing at you in a car.
Helps prevent frostbite too.
Asians still wonder why Europeans have big noses.
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