<\/p>
Nostrils weren\u2019t always used for breathing.<\/p>\n
Back when we were all still fish, our noses were good only for smelling \u2013 as modern fishes\u2019 noses still are.<\/p>\n
And we\u2019d have had two pairs of nostrils, one set behind the other \u2013 as modern fish still do.<\/p>\n
Water enters the piscine nose through the front pair and exits through the rear.<\/p>\n
We humans and other tetrapods (mammals<\/a>, birds<\/a>, reptiles<\/a> and amphibians<\/a>) have kept the front pair, but the rear ones have become internal tubes that connect our nasal cavity to our throat, allowing us to breath through our nose.<\/p>\n For whales, breathing through nostrils sited in the customary position on the front of the face would be highly inefficient as it would require lifting the head up out of the water.<\/p>\n Which is why cetacean nostrils have migrated to the top of the head to become blowholes.<\/p>\n While baleen whales, such as blues<\/a> and humpbacks<\/a>, have a pair of blowholes, equivalent to our own paired nostrils, sperm whales<\/a>, dolphins<\/a> and other toothed whales have just one. This is derived from the left nostril; the right one opens internally.<\/p>\n And as anyone who has got their own nostrils to within sniffing distance of a blowhole will testify, a whale\u2019s exhaled breath isn\u2019t so sweet \u2013 a cocktail of farts, cabbages and rotting fish.<\/p>\n Main image: A blue whale\u2019s blowhole can measure up to 50cm in diameter. \u00a9 Kevin Schafer\/Gett<\/em>y<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n By Stuart Blackman Published: Tuesday, 24 January 2023 at 12:00 am Nostrils weren\u2019t always used for breathing. Back when we were all still fish, our noses were good only for smelling \u2013 as modern fishes\u2019 noses still are. And we\u2019d have had two pairs of nostrils, one set behind the other \u2013 as modern fish […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":24212,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/why-whales-have-blowholes-scaled.jpg",2560,1704,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/why-whales-have-blowholes-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/why-whales-have-blowholes-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/why-whales-have-blowholes-768x511.jpg",768,511,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/why-whales-have-blowholes-1024x681.jpg",800,532,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/why-whales-have-blowholes-1536x1022.jpg",1536,1022,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/01\/why-whales-have-blowholes-2048x1363.jpg",2048,1363,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Stuart Blackman Published: Tuesday, 24 January 2023 at 12:00 am Nostrils weren\u2019t always used for breathing. Back when we were all still fish, our noses were good only for smelling \u2013 as modern fishes\u2019 noses still are. And we\u2019d have had two pairs of nostrils, one set behind the other \u2013 as modern fish…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/24211"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"