Human nasal protrusion, latitude, and climate

Abstract

Relationships between morphological features of human skeletal nasal protrusion, latitude, and climate were investigated. Craniofacial dimensions and indices determined by Woo and Morant (1934) on a world sample of 55 skeletal populations were used as dependent variables. Sample sizes were as low as 39 in some calculations because either skeletal or geographic data were missing. Thirteen climatically related averaged variables, for each population's provenience, were the independent variables. Multivariate techniques of bivariate correlation, multiple regression, and partial correlation were applied. A strong, statistically significant cline of increasing nose protrusion, with decreasing absolute humidity and with increasing latitude, was found. Cold climatic variables appeared to be of greater importance than warm measures. Similarly, absolute humidity was found to be a much better predictor of nose protrusion than was relative humidity.