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Ancient Humans had Different Smell Sensitivities
What might this tell us about ourselves?
Our Sapien lifespan once overlapped with at least four other Human species for a few thousand years. However, it’s our cousins, the Neanderthals, that we are drawn to the most — and more recently, the Denisovans. Perhaps it’s because we know more about them than our other Human relatives, and since nearly everyone has some Neanderthal and/or Denisovan DNA, learning about them feels a little more… I don’t know… personal.
We can’t help but wonder how we were the same and how we differed. Well, some researchers at Duke University wondered about the differences between our senses, specifically, our sense of smell. Researchers used genomes and lab-grown olfactory receptors to gauge the sensitivities to different scents. They found that Neanderthals and Denisovans had different smell sensitivities compared to modern-day Humans.
The Power of Smell
Of our five primary senses, I think our sense of smell is the most underrated. Thankfully, researchers have become uniquely interested in it over the last couple of years, and we’re learning all sorts of amazing things. To be honest, the attraction seems to coincide with the pandemic and Covid’s habit of taking people’s sense of smell away. But regardless of what spurred…
