Human noses come in all shapes and sizes. But one feature seems to hold true: Men’s noses are bigger than women’s.

The size difference, the researchers believe, comes from the sexes’ different builds and energy demands: Males in general have more lean muscle mass, which requires more oxygen for muscle tissue growth and maintenance. Larger noses mean more oxygen can be breathed in and transported in the blood to supply the muscle.

It’s interesting to note that these differences don’t actually kick in until around puberty, however:

“Physiologically speaking, males begin to grow more lean muscle mass from that time, while females grow more fat mass. Prior research has shown that, during puberty, approximately 95 percent of body weight gain in males comes from fat-free mass, compared to 85 percent in females.”

This also could explain why human noses are smaller than some of our now-extinct relatives such as Neanderthals, since they had more muscle mass, requiring – so goes the theory- larger noses to support said muscles.

Via PHYS.ORG.