The nasopharynx as a window to half a billion years of evolutionary change to the upper respiratory tract

The nasopharynx is a region at the nexus of several vital physiological systems, including the nasal cavity, oral cavity, braincase, middle ear, and cervical vertebrae. It has undergone pronounced morphological change over the course of tetrapod, mammalian, and human evolution. However, despite its place in evolutionary history, the nasopharynx has received relatively little attention. This special issue focuses on “the evolution, development, and functional morphology of the nasopharynx and its boundaries.” Topics covered here include evolutionary developmental biology (or evo–devo), nasopharyngeal adaptions in bats, the importance of the nasopharynx and adjacent structures over the course of human evolution, normal development, middle ear morphology, clinical importance, and the study of the nasopharynx throughout history. Contributions to this special issue range among reviews and syntheses, descriptive analyses, phylogenetic analysis, traditional morphometrics, three-dimensional geometric morphometrics, and computational fluid dynamics. Here, we discuss the central importance of the nasopharynx as can be seen through vertebrate paleontology and comparative morphology. It is via the composite evolutionary history of the nasopharyngeal boundaries that our origins may be better understood, starting with the derivation of the choanae from the median olfactory pit of jawless fish nearly half a billion years ago to the basicranial flexion and facial reduction that distinguish Homo sapiens from all other living mammals. Indeed, the nasopharynx must be acknowledged for its importance in the processes of encephalization and acquisition of speech that have become the hallmark of our species.