Covariation patterns and respiratory simulation in modern human and Neanderthal noses

DE AZEVEDO, SOLEDAD; CINTAS, CELIA; GONZÁLEZ, MARINA FERNANDA; RAMALLO, VIRGINIA; QUINTO-SÁNCHEZ, MIRSHA; FEDERÍCO MÁRQUEZ; HÜNEMEIER, TÁBITA; PASCHETTA, CAROLINA; ANAHÍ RUDERMAN; NAVARRO, PABLO; BRUNO PAZOS; CERQUEIRA, CAIO CESAR SILVA DE; OSVALDO VELAN; RAMÍREZ ROZZI, FERNANDO; NESTOR CALVO; HUGO CASTRO; RODRIGO PAZ; GONZÁLEZ-JOSÉ, ROLANDO

Austin

Congreso; 87TH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGISTS; 2018

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGISTS

It is likely that a proper respiratory performanceon cold and dry climates was an adaptive pre-requisiteto the human settlement of Eurasianlandscapes during the last Glacial Maximum.Research on covariation patterns amongdifferent anatomical parts of the nasal tract isof key importance to simulate the respiratoryperformance under several conditions. Data oncovariation among soft versus hard tissues, orvestibular versus nasopharyngeal structures, forinstance, is necessary to obtain a proper in silicoreconstruction of the internal nasal tract. Here wepresent an extensive covariation analysis of nasaltracts including human and non-human primatesas well as hard and soft tissues obtained viaComputed Tomography. Furthermore, weused warping techniques to reconstruct threecomplete nasal tracts corresponding to twomodern human populations evolved on temperate(southern European) and cold-dry (eastern Asian)climates, and a generic Neanderthal nose.Reconstructed noses including the mucosasurface were submitted to Computational FluidDynamics (CFD) in order to simulate respiratoryregimes and climatic conditions. Simulationsrevealed that across-individuals differences influid residence time significantly affect nasalhumidification and warming dynamics. Undercold/dry climatic regimes, the eastern Asianmodel achieved the most rapid conditioning atthe vestibular region, followed with slightly lessrapid conditioning by the Neanderthal model. Incontrast, the southern European model reacheda physiologically satisfactory conditioning lessrapidly, around the medium-posterior nasaltract. These CFD results suggest that proper airconditioning is attained in some human groupsand Neanderthal nasal tracts despite significantamong-taxa craniofacial differences.