Who has the best sense of smell ?
We usually think that animals like dogs, wolves bears have the best sense of smell but in 2014 researchers proved that African elephants have the greatest sense of smell among the mammals. They also beat dogs including the Bloodhound renowned for its sniffing ability. Humans may be the most intelligent creatures on earth but due to thousands of years of evolution some species have developed some uncanny ability. In all animals the part responsible for the sense of smell are the Olfactory receptors (ORs), also known as odorant receptors. These are in epithelium of nose and provide the sense of smell. They have cilia that contain the receptors in its membrane and can detect specific chemicals. Researchers examined the olfactory receptor (OR) repertoire encoded in 13 mammalian species and found that African elephants have the largest number of OR genes i.e., around 2000 functional OR genes which is twice that found in dogs and five times more than in humans. This research