Common evolutionary patterns in the human nasal region across a worldwide sample

Variation in the external nasal region among human populations has long been proposed in the literature to reflect adaptations to facilitate thermoregulation, air conditioning, and moisture retention in local climates and environments. More specifically, adaptations in populations living in colder climates have often been assumed due to correlational relationships found between variation in the nasal region and climatic variables. Here, we test this hypothesis by applying a quantitative genetics approach based on the Lande model to assess whether variation in the nasal region can be explained by random neutral processes (e.g., genetic drift) or if non-random forces (i.e., adaptation) have contributed significantly to its diversity.

A mixed-sex sample representing 28 population groups from Howells' craniometric dataset were analyzed (n = 2504). Twenty standard measurements were chosen to reflect the external skeletal morphology of the nasal region. We apply statistical tests developed from evolutionary quantitative genetics theory to analyze patterns of within- and between-population divergence under a null hypothesis of genetic drift.

This study finds a rejection of genetic drift in all analyses, across tests that involve all 28 populations, exclusively cold-climate populations, and with cold-climate populations excluded, indicating that non-random evolutionary forces have contributed significantly to variation in the nasal region overall.

These results show that nasal region adaptation is not exclusive to cold-climate populations, which have often been implicated in the literature to drive nasal variation, instead suggesting that the propensity for adaptation in the nasal region is shared among all human populations.