Nasal airflow simulations suggest convergent adaptation in Neanderthals and modern humans

DE AZEVEDO, S.; GONZÁLEZ, M. F.; CINTAS, C.; RAMALLO, V.; QUINTO-SÁNCHEZ, M.; MÁRQUEZ, F.; HÜNEMEIER, T.; PASCHETTA, C.; RUDERMAN, A.; NAVARRO, P.; PAZOS, B. A.; SILVA DE CERQUEIRA, C. C.; VELAN, O.; RAMÍREZ-ROZZI, F.; CALVO, N.; CASTRO, H. G.; PAZ, R. R.; GONZÁLEZ-JOSÉ, R.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

NATL ACAD SCIENCES

Año: 2017 vol. 114 p. 12442 - 12447

0027-8424

Due to its role in humidifying and warming the air before it reaches the lungs, adaptations in the internal nasal anatomy are suspected to have been essential for modern humans and Neanderthals during the settlement of Eurasian harsh landscapes. Unfortunately, the lack of soft-tissue evidence in the fossil record precludes any study of Neanderthal respiratory performance. Here, we use warping techniques to reconstruct a generic Neanderthal nose, computational fluid dynamics simulations tocompare the respiratory performance on both species, and evolutionary analyses to detect signals of selection. We report striking differences on fluid residence times under cold/dry climatic conditions. Different from previously suggested, our results indicate that both species would have achieved an advantageous species-specific respiratory performance in cold climates.