Let's get down to business and answer this question.
First, distinguish gorillas from orangutans. In terms of nostrils, gorillas may be slightly better;
Second, size is relative. The nostrils of gorillas are indeed larger than those of modern people, but so are those of Australopithecus and homo habilis. Moreover, not only the nostril size is different, but also the nose type is quite different.
Orangutans and gorillas are actually very easy to distinguish, because orangutans are easy to identify, that is, their hair is red, so orangutans are also called? Orangutan? . In addition, orangutans and gorillas are completely different in habitat, appearance and lifestyle.
Habitat: Orangutans live in Asia, and now they are mainly distributed on two islands in Southeast Asia, one is kalimantan island and the other is Sumatra. They usually live in tropical rain forests. Gorillas live near the equator in Africa and are divided into lowland gorillas in West Africa and mountain gorillas in Central Africa and East Africa according to their living places. Low-lying gorillas gather in tropical rain forests, while mountain gorillas live above 3000 meters above sea level.
Appearance: Apart from sparse red hair, what is the most iconic feature of orangutans? Big face? Accurately speaking, cheek pouches will get bigger and bigger with age, especially for male orangutans. The appearance of gorillas can refer to King Kong. They have thick black hair, and silver-gray hair will grow on the back of male adult gorillas, which is what people often say? Silver-backed gorilla
Lifestyle: orangutans have short legs and long arms. They can neither walk freely and quickly among trees like gibbons nor walk like gorillas? Move comfortably on the ground. They spend most of their time in trees and occasionally go down to the ground, but they can only walk on the outside of their feet and knuckles. Gorillas are heavy and it is difficult to climb trees, so they spend most of their time on the ground and climb trees only when they sleep. Gorillas also walk with their knuckles and feet, and occasionally stand upright.
Nose and Nose The nostrils of gorillas are indeed bigger than those of modern people, but what if they are compared with the ancients millions of years ago? You can learn a little from the restoration maps of Australopithecus, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Neanderthals and Homo sapiens.
Judging from the restoration map, at least before Homo erectus, early humans had it? Nose big? So the new question is, how did paleoanthropologists restore the appearance of these ancient humans?
The answer is fossils and genes. The restoration map is first established on the basis of bone fossils, among skull fossils? Anterior nasal spine? The degree of development directly determines the height of the nose, according to the French anthropologist Paul? According to Belloga's classification, the development of human anterior nasal spine can be divided into five grades, from 1 grade to 5 grade, and the nose becomes taller in turn. That is to say, according to the anterior nasal spine, the direction of the nose can be judged and speculated.
Secondly, genetic evidence, that is, by comparing the DNA extracted from modern and ancient human fossils, infers the genetic relationship between them, and takes the appearance of modern people as a reference for restoration.
It can be seen that the nose of ancient humans before Homo erectus was relatively low and the nostrils were not small, but the nostrils began to change since Homo erectus, because of the change of living environment. Because Homo erectus first walked out of Africa about 2 million years ago, the environment they faced was different. The temperature and humidity are different from the original habitat. In order to adapt to this change, the body begins to change slowly: the legs are getting longer and shorter, the eyesight is getting better and better, the sense of smell is getting worse and worse, the hands are getting more flexible, and the brain is getting better and better?
In these changes, the height of the nose is related to the respiratory system. A tall, slender nose with small nostrils allows enough time for the inhaled cold air to warm up in the nasal cavity, while a flat, short nose with large nostrils is more convenient for heat dissipation. Is this what we often say about environmental differences? Europeans have high noses and Asians have low noses? In fact, this is a more general statement. As far as modern people's nose and nostrils are concerned, they can be divided into concave type, straight type, convex type and wavy type according to the different shapes of nose wings. Nose shape directly affects the shape of nostrils, with a high nose corresponding to a thin oval nostril and a low nose corresponding to a flat and wide oval nostril.
Finally, back to the gorilla, the place where the gorilla lives hasn't changed much, so its nose doesn't need to evolve like human beings, so it's not so much that the gorilla's nostrils get bigger as that of human beings.