Write a broad description of how the cranial characteristics of the nasal bone morphology changed over...

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Medical Sciences

Write a broad description of how the cranial characteristics ofthe nasal bone morphology changed over time. Going fromSahelanthropus tchadensis to Homo sapiens.

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The fundamental configuration of the nasal fossa is a highly conserved region As one tracks the evolution from crocodilian to the mammalian skull very little change can be observed in this region with its persistent and constant morphology seen in a great majority of mammalian groups In mammalian groups the palate separates the nasal and oral cavities Primary secondary and soft palate The primary internal naris remains as a vestigial opening ie the anterior palatine canal which is topographically positioned between primary and secondary palate The primary nose fully opens behind a virtual coronal plane through the anterior palatine canal into both the respiratory and olfactory noses Respiratory and olfactory noses are separated from each other by the transverse lamina a thin bony axial structure Thus the respiratory nose appears as two paramedian long axial channels walled in on the inferior lateral and medial sides by the reconfiguration of the primary palatal bones vomer palatine pterygoid and inferior turbinate bones between the two maxillary bones and their palatine processes and partitioned from the olfactory nose through the transverse lamina The olfactory nose is completely embedded in the anterior cranial base that is the ethmoid bone The living primates which include humans are taxonomically classified in two suborders Strepsirrhini and Haplorhini the latter group includes our human ancestors11 Through the course of primate evolution profound changes in the nasal fossa allow one to differentiate the haplorhines from strepsirrhines and all other mammals The word haplorhine means dry nose whereas strepsirrhine means wet nose As a result strepsirrhine primates exhibit wet noses similarly to dogs and cats Haplorhine primates have a fused frontal bone suture as well as a fused mandibular symphysis While both haplorhine and strepsirrhine primates have a complete orbital ring of bone only the haplorhine exhibit a complete bony enclosure posteriorly separating the periorbital contents from the temporalis muscle as it traverses through the infratemporal fossa on its way to attaching the coronoid process of the mandible The superior See Answer

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