Ancient humans had same sense of smell, but different sensitivities

It's a good thing your nose wasn't as sensitive to urine and sweat as a modern human's because it could have been a sign of your grooming habits.

If you lived the hunting and gathering lifestyle of a Denisovan, your strong nose for energy-rich honey would be an advantage.

A new study from Duke University has found out more about what the two extinct human species were able to smell.

Using a technique they developed that allows researchers to test smell sensitivity on odor receptors grown in a lab dish, researchers were able to compare the scent-abilities of three different types of humans. Their work was published in the journal i Science.

The researchers were able to look at the relevant genes in each of the three human species by drawing from published databases of genomes.

According to de March, it is very difficult to predict a behavior just from the genomic sequence. We were able to compare Neanderthal and Denisovan individuals with today's humans to see if they had the same odorant receptor genes.

To find out how sensitive each type of olfactoryreceptor was to a particular scent, they tested the responses of 30 lab-grown olfactoryreceptors from each hominin.

The lab tests showed that the modern and ancient humans were 888-609- 888-609- 888-609- 888-609-.

The Denisovans, who lived 30,000 to 50,000 years ago, were better at detecting sulfur and balsamic than humans are today. They were very familiar with the substance.

"We don't know what Denisovans ate, but there are some reasons why this receptor has to be sensitive," said Matsunami, who is a professor in the Duke School of Medicine. The Hadza of Tanzania are famous for their love of honey.

Neanderthals were three times less likely to respond to green, floral and spicy smells than we are today. Matsunami said that the selectivity remains the same.

The Neanderthal odorant receptors are the same as modern humans and the few that were different were not more responsive.

As a species changes ranges and diet, it's likely that odorreceptors will evolve as well.

Matsunami said that each species must evolve to maximize their ability to find food. It's more difficult in humans because we eat so much. We aren't really special.

The scent tester is used by the lab to see genetic variation. Some people can smell chemicals while others can't. Functional changes can be used to explain that.

There is more information about the Genetic and Functional odorantreceptor variation in the Homo lineage. The article is titled "Isci.2022.105908".

Journal information: iScience