Nasal airflow simulations suggest convergent adaptation in Neanderthals and modern humans.

ABSTRACT: Both modern humans (MHs) and Neanderthals successfully settled across western Eurasian cold-climate landscapes. Among the many adaptations considered as essential to survival in such landscapes, changes in the nasal morphology and/or function aimed to humidify and warm the air before it reaches the lungs are of key importance. Unfortunately, the lack of soft-tissue evidence in the fossil record turns difficult any comparative study of respiratory performance. Here, we reconstruct the internal nasal cavity of a Neanderthal plus two representatives of climatically divergent MH populations (southwestern Europeans and northeastern Asians). The reconstruction includes mucosa distribution enabling a realistic simulation of the breathing cycle in different climatic conditions via computational fl

SUBMITTER: de Azevedo S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5703271 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature