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THE SHORT SNOUTS. “Humans and most of our closest extant relatives, the anthropoids, are notable for their reduced “snout.” The striking reduction in facial projection is only a superficial similarity. All anthropoids, including those with long faces (e.g., baboons), have lost numerous internal projections (turbinals) and spaces (recesses). In sum, this equates to the loss of certain regions of olfactory mucosa in anthropoids.” https://lnkd.in/dgtqkTi View in LinkedIn

DRY NOSES TRAITS. “The haplorhine upper lip, which has replaced the ancestral rhinarium found in strepsirrhines, is not directly connected to their nose or gum, allowing a large range of facial expressions. Their brain to body ratio is significantly greater than the strepsirrhines, and their primary sense is vision. Haplorhines have a postorbital plate, unlike the postorbital bar found in strepsirrhines. Most species are diurnal (the exceptions being the tarsiers and the night monkeys).” https://lnkd.in/dReYf85 View in LinkedIn

DRY NOSES. “Haplorhini (the haplorhines or the "dry-nosed" primates, the Greek name means "simple-nosed") is a clade containing the tarsiers and the simians (or anthropoids).” https://lnkd.in/dReYf85 View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE contemplates the human facial structure which enables language and emotional communication. The musculature and structure of the human face seems excessively complex. Darwin’s The Expression of the Emotions in Humans and Animals (1872) is a classic, wherein he observed his screaming child and analyzed the muscles responsible for the behavior. Since then, thinking about the human face has matured, and the reasons behind our complex mask are revealing themselves. View in LinkedIn

Tis the season of the glorious Amaryllis. View in LinkedIn

SNOWFLAKES. “Ice can form homogeneously by either freezing liquid water, or directly through vapor deposition to the crystalline phase. As is the case for the homogeneous nucleation of liquid water surface tension effects imply that for a given supersaturation an ice-embryo must reach a critical size. For ice-embryo’s smaller than this critical size an increase in the crystal size implies an increase in the change of the free energy of the system.” http://www.mpimet.mpg.de/fileadmin/staff/stevensbjorn/teaching/skript-5.pdf View in LinkedIn

FACE CONCEPT. “Vertebrate faces "may be conceptualized as consisting of structurally and functionally integrated units based upon these demands but evolution of these units and the face as a whole are constrained by phylogeny and developmental pathways.” https://lnkd.in/dfD33KM View in LinkedIn

REPURPOSING. “A complete survey of the vomeronasal system in humans and other catarrhines reveals some vestiges are best understood as functional hallmarks of a specific time in life history, even though they may disappear or attain a new function later in ontogeny.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ar.23035/full View in LinkedIn

The perfect accident of the cross-section of an ancient fossil locked in limestone. View in LinkedIn

RUDIMENT GENES. “The drastically altered phenotype of a “rudiment” can sometimes make us forget the shared significance of reduced anatomical structures: they demonstrate the persistence of genes. This is true even in the absence of demonstrable functionality, as in the case of atavisms. Yet vestiges are more consistently present.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ar.23035/full View in LinkedIn