Climate Was More Responsible For Nose Shape Than Genetics: Study

In a new study it is revealed the shape of our nose was sculpted over time by adaptations to the local climate of our ancestors.

Details of the study are published in the PLOS Genetics journal. It writes different ethnic populations have different noses. This also differs from person to person.

Mark D. Shriver led the study and he writes the appearance of people as well as the surface in different populations is much greater than the genetic differences show on average.

More than 2,500 individuals were selected for the study from a database of about 10,000. They were from four populations – North Europeans, South Asians, East Asians and West Africans. 3-D photos of each person was examined like width of the nostrils, height of the nose, distance between nostrils, nose protrusion, area of the nostrils and external area of the nose.

Shriver said, “So we have multiple cameras that image a person’s face, either simultaneously or in a carefully constructed series, and from those multiple angles, you can derive the shape of a face as a point cloud.”

The analysis of data was complex and the researchers found width of nostrils and base of the nose measurements differed across populations more compared to genetic drift.