The influence of nasal airflow on respiratory and olfactory epithelial distribution in felids.
J Exp Biol. 2016 Apr 4;
Authors: Pang B, Yee KK, Lischka FW, Rawson NE, Haskins ME, Wysocki CJ, Craven BA, Van Valkenburgh B
Abstract
The surface area of the maxilloturbinals and fronto-ethmoturbinals is commonly used as an osteological proxy for respiratory and olfactory epithelium, respectively. However, this assumption does not fully account for animals with short snouts in which these two turbinal structures significantly overlap, potentially placing fronto-ethmoturbinals in the path of respiratory airflow. In these species, it is possible that anterior fronto-ethmoturbinals are covered with nonsensory (respiratory) epithelium instead of olfactory epithelium. In this study, we analyzed the distribution of olfactory and nonsensory, respiratory epithelia on the turbinals of two domestic cats (Felis catus), and a bobcat (Lynx rufus). We also conducted a computational fluid dynamics simulation of nasal airflow in the bobcat to explore the relationship between epithelial distribution and airflow patterns. The results showed that a substantial amount of respiratory airflow passes over the anterior fronto-ethmoturbinals, and that contrary to what has been observed in caniform carnivorans, much of the anterior ethmoturbinals are covered by nonsensory epithelium. This confirms that in short-snouted felids, portions of the fronto-ethmoturbinals have been recruited for respiration, and that estimates of olfactory epithelial coverage based purely on fronto-ethmoturbinal surface area will be exaggerated. The correlation between the shape of the anterior fronto-ethmoturbinals and the direction of respiratory airflow suggests that in short-snouted species, CT data alone is useful in assessing airflow patterns and epithelium distribution on the turbinals.
PMID: 27045093 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
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