Did noses evolve for smelling or for breathing?

[don_t_ask]

And here I was thinking that the nose evolved to facilitate modern office politics.

[JKellyMap]

@Siam_Sam

So what’s up with those two lines that come down from the nose?

Ask Phil somebody. He nose.

[phreesh]

Somewhat related, but why are the nostrils downward pointing? In the great apes, the nostrils are forward facing, which seems like the more ‘natural’ way for them to be utilized for the intake of oxygen and odors.

I’ve read that it’s to facilitate swimming, so water doesn’t [easily] get into your nose, but that seems pretty far-fetched. Is there a factual answer to this?

[Speaker_for_the_Dead]

Guys, wow. I haven’t been on the SDMB for months and months, and my first thread nets me BOTH the answer I want and an amazing series of puns. I’m sad I ever left!

[Zebra]

Moses supposes horse noses are hoses, but Moses supposes erroneously.

[Autolycus]

@WhyNot

What selective pressure caused it to be lost in horses, do we know?

Sinus pressure?

Or what Colibri said. One of the two!

[Elendil_s_Heir]

@Sunspace

These puns stink.

Then why’d you come sniffing around here?

[Chefguy]

@Elendil_s_Heir

Then why’d you come sniffing around here?

He’s nose it adenoids us.

[Tom_Tildrum]

@Colibri

Whales, for obvious reasons, have developed a separation between the respiratory and digestive systems in order to permit them to breathe and swallow at the same time.

And yet they never discovered oral sex…

[psychonaut]

@Tom_Tildrum

And yet they never discovered oral sex…

On the contrary…