ABOUTOne of the signs of a truly cold day is a sharp tingle of icy air in your nose. It was believed that noses Neanderthals were better adapted to breathing the cold air of the Ice Age, and when the climate became warmer, modern people replaced them. This is now being questioned.
The opening in the Neanderthal skull is larger than ours, and behind it is a larger nasal cavity. It was thought to have bony convolutions that warmed and moistened incoming air, similar to those seen in some arctic mammals. However, these fragile structures could only survive in an exceptionally well-preserved skull, so it was never clear whether they actually existed.
Recent nasal endoscopy of the Altamura human skull – whose remains are enshrined in the wall of the Lamalunga cave in southern Italy due to its fragility – no similar structures have been found. A research team from the University of Perugia has concluded that Neanderthal noses were not as adapted to cold as expected.
This may force researchers to consider other theories about Neanderthals' adaptation to cold, such as whether they actually had a more active metabolism. But if Neanderthals' noses weren't designed for the cold, and if they were as well adapted to the post-Ice Age warming world as we were, then why did they go extinct?
