Hello Friends

Someone asked me the following question today. She said:

Do you know why african people have large nostrils ?

I smiled. I told her not all african people have large nostrils, and I went as far as saying if statistics were gathered on such a thing, africans with small nostrils might outnumber those with large ones.

So after correcting the question for her, the question became:

Why do you certain ethnic groups (not only in Africans, but Australian aborigines, and I'm sure others) have large nostrils ??

Then I went ahead and told her that I had no idea why that was.

She said the answer was to do with their hot climate and how they need to breath in more oxygen.

But to be honest, I don't buy that. It doesn't seem like a good explanation. And that is why I'm here. Can someone answer the question please ? Hopefully with Scientific paper backing.

Thank You.

I imagine there's an evolutionary advantage, perhaps heat exchange (cooling) during extended hunting runs?

I suspect the question is the wrong way around.

Please make it the right way around Tursas

"what would be the evolutionary advantage of having larger/broader.."
?


Sent from my iPhone using Magic, or somesuch.

I mean if you consider the latest common ancestor for these populations your friend is talking about ("certain ethnic groups" vs. your friend's particular ethnic group)--maybe your friend's nostrils have, in fact, gotten smaller*, in which case the question would be "Why do certain ethnic groups have small nostrils?"

*I have no idea if this is the case

Cool, let's make the question that way then. Still we haven't got a solid answer.

All the better to smell with? I always wondered why some people have high bridged noses though since the bone takes on a different shape not just the cartilage. Someone told me it was to warm air better once...

Hi inkaStepa I've heard that too, though in the version I heard, it was so that they cool the air !!

Cause in their warm climate, air is already warm/hot.

Is there no solid research on this ?

The people who live in the Andes mountains have really high bridges....but I haven't found any research about it. I'm not even sure how one would go about studying it though.

laklak wrote:Living in a dusty environment and getting lots of boogers?

Wouldn't that just give them longer, slimmer fingers?

quote="Gallstones";p="1046181"]

laklak wrote:Living in a dusty environment and getting lots of boogers?

Wouldn't that just give them longer, slimmer fingers?[/quote]

Not if they live in parts of SE Asia.There is a fragrant and rather common practice; a person of either gender places their thumb against one nostril opening, and blows through the other. Words cannot express how elegant it looks seeing a stream of snot exiting a human nostril at great force and speed.

Warning: Do not do this in front of a Japanese person unless you want them to vomit all over you.

gleniedee wrote:Not if they live in parts of SE Asia.There is a fragrant and rather common practice; a person of either gender places their thumb against one nostril opening, and blows through the other. Words cannot express how elegant it looks seeing a stream of snot exiting a human nostril at great force and speed.

Known hereabouts as "sportsman's nose blowing".

Being of Northern European descent and having had an operation for a deviated septum, I'm wondering why my people's nose shape is considered desirable.

The real question is why do those subpopulations have such fat fingers.

felltoearth wrote:Being of Northern European descent and having had an operation for a deviated septum, I'm wondering why my people's nose shape is considered desirable.

Coke?

Or Pepsi?

It's to do with the shape of the nasal cavity and the orientation of the nasal bone and cartilage. Not everything is adaptation.