How do living things adapt to conditions at such high latitudes? I knew it would be cold up here at 64.838° N / 147.716° W (last night it was -30 degrees F!) but I didn't realize it would be quite so dry. I've been waking up with bloody noses each night because my nostrils are dried out!
Today we visited the University of Alaska's Reindeer Research Program and I was reminded about an adaptation in reindeer that makes me envious. Reindeer have elaborately folded bones inside their nasal cavities, called turbinal bones, which are covered with blood-rich membranes that warm the air as they breathe in and cool it as they breathe out. This reduces the loss of both heat and water. Humans and many other warm-blooded vertebrates also have turbinal bones, but it's the folding of the bones in reindeer muzzles that give them this desirable ability. Evidently the downside of this adaptation is that reindeer muzzles are particularly inviting to parasites! (In a 1986 article in Parasitology Today, Dr. Odd Halvorsen of the University of Oslo suggested that color of Rudolph's nose is probably due to a parasitic infection of his respiratory system.) I wish my turbinal bones were more folded, but I'm not so sure about the parasites!
Reindeer Muzzle (Photo courtesy of Mike League)