This is the face of a
Black Snub-nosed Monkey. The nose looks to me like it should belong to a bat rather than a simian. This morning I tried to look up why a monkey would evolve such an unusual nasal shape, and found some reports that
bat noses are used in their echolocation process. I knew about the ears, but hadn't thought about the source of the sonar, which apparently - at least in some species - is emitted by the nose.
So, back to this monkey's nose. Does he/she use it to produce sounds? There must be some major evolutionary advantage, because losing the external prominence means losing the thermal warming a nose would provide, and much of the particulate filtering, which might be disadvantages. I haven't found anything, but don't have time to search far. Perhaps someone out there knows...
Via
Zumbi.
bat? not michael jackson?
ReplyDeleteI've seen speculation that the cowled nature of the human nose is an adaptation to swimming. Human noses aren't really the most efficient design for air throughput.
ReplyDeleteReally, if you look at a Chimpanzee or Gorilla nose, it looks more like the monkey than a human nose.
My guess is that the animal doesn't go near water, and the open nasal passage gives an advantage to respiration in some way. I see it lives at altitude, so maybe that has something to do with it.
I'm not psychic, but I knew the first comment would mention Michael Jackson
ReplyDeleteI knew that too. No way to avoid it, really.
ReplyDelete