Human ancestors explored ‘out of Africa’ despite impaired nasal faculties
In humans inhaled air is conditioned poorly in the nasal cavity in comparison with primates, such as chimpanzees and macaques, according a recent study published in PLOS Computational Biology. Unlike our protruding external nose, which has little effect on improving air conditioning performance, other hominins (including australopithecines) were endowed with flat nasal features and faculties to improve air conditioning.