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Cat noses compared to high-tech lab equipment in landmark study
We finally know the true capabilities of a cat’s nose, and while humans have around five million odor sensors in our noses, cats have over 200 million!
For as long as we have been around, there has been an unspoken rivalry between cats and dogs. Even their owners get in on the fun, with studies showing that cat and dog owners have very different personalities. Well, now it seems cats outperform their canine rivals in one area, and it has nothing to do with the Zoomie capabilities.
How good is a cat’s sense of smell? Better than dogs, it turns out
We heard earlier that one woman would prefer 800 more cats than a man, and now it seems she has yet another reason to up her feline intake following a study from Ohio State University.
The study, published in the PLoS Computational Biology journal in June 2023, highlighted how cats get their keen sense of smell through tightly coiled bony airway structures. For reference, dogs have 100 million odor senses, which is 100 million less than cats.
We spent a lot of time developing the model and more sophisticated analysis to understand the functional benefit that this structure serves, the lead author said. The cat nose probably has a similar complexity level as the dogs, and its more complex than a rodents and it begs the question why was the nose evolved to be so complex?
To better understand their sense of smell, scientists built a 3D computer model of the cat’s nose, which they then used to simulate various scents. This, in turn, led to the discovery that the air is funneled into two separate flow streams. The first stream cleanses and humidifies the air, while the second delivers the scent to the olfactory region for processing.
Essentially, your cat’s nose works like a gas chromatograph, a piece of lab equipment that separates and analyses chemicals.
The discovery could provide further scientific exploration
The exciting discovery could pose interesting routes to explore when it comes to the chemical analysis methods of the future.
Its a good design if you think about it, said Kai Zhao, associate professor of otolaryngology at Ohio States College of Medicine and senior author of the study. For mammals, olfaction is very important in finding prey, identifying danger, finding food sources and tracking the environment. In fact, a dog can take a sniff and know what has passed through was it a friend or not? Thats an amazing olfactory system and I think potentially there have been different ways to evolve to enhance that.”
He added: “By observing these flow patterns and analyzing details of these flows, we think they could be two different flow zones that serve two different purposes.
