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A number of scientific studies have been conducted over the years in an attempt to answer this perplexing question. One such project found that on average, ears grow one-hundredth of an inch every year. Many people are under that impression that our ears and nose get bigger throughout life because they are made of cartilage, which continues to grow after our bones have stopped. While this is true of the cartilage in fish that lack a bone skeleton, such as sharks, the expert at the MadSci network says it's simply not true for humans and other animals with a bone skeleton. So what accounts for the largish ears and nose one tends to see on
older folk? Some speculate that large ears somehow correlate with longer life, so those with biggish ears are simply the ones who make it to old age. And on a plastic surgery site, we read, "Nasal cartilage becomes thinner and loses its elasticity as we age, causing the tip of the nose to lengthen and droop." So maybe our nose and ears just get droopier? Fact is, no one really knows. This smells like one of those eternally confounding scientific questions that we'll continue to hear about until someone sniffs out a satisfactory explanation.
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