4 ms·
This seems very unlikely given that most of the various structures and pathways involved in smell in humans don't exist in our earliest (in the bacteria sense)
by RhodesianHunter 7y ago
This seems very unlikely given that most of the various structures and pathways involved in smell in humans don't exist in our earliest (in the bacteria sense) ancestors.
It seems far more likely to be a positive associating due to a higher likelihood of finding growing food.
- ggm 7y agook. so at some point we acquired it. it must be either very old, or recent. in either case, the fact it confers at best marginal evolutionary benefit, suggests that it is not strongly linked to what we are as humans, and its net cost to us persisting in the genome confers no disadvantage or, is coupled in gene terms to other attributes (sense of smell in general) which are sufficiently beneficial, it will not disappear