Relative Nose Size Versus Time

Okay, there are some weird plots in science papers out there, but something about this one (which Pak at scirate.com pointed me to), taken from arXiv:0711.1751 “Paleontological Tests: Human-like Intelligence is not a Convergent Feature of Evolution,” by Charles H. Lineweaver made me laugh:

One Reply to “Relative Nose Size Versus Time”

  1. Well, Aardvarks are misinterpreted here … they don’t have long noses, they have pointy faces with the nose at the end.
    But other than that, there is a pattern here that makes sense. Mammals get larger on this graph (through the miocene). You can’t have elephant size noses on animals much smaller than an elephant. Large size is a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for the big shnozz (sp?).

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