Whats the difference between the sense of smell and the sense of taste?
It depends on the animal. In most mammals, the two are completely separate because they each have dedicated neurons. The olfactory lobes detect air borne odors. Taste “bud” receptors on the tongue register dissolved substances. Unlike smell, these receptors are specialized. Taste receptors respond to sweet, salty or bitter tastes. Olfactory cells respond to any odor indescriminantly. Reptiles begin to demonstrate how taste and smell became separated in mammals. They have olfactory lobes like mammals but also a special pit in the roof of the mouth called a jacobson’s organ. Snakes use their tongues to pick up odor molecules which then get passed to this organ. The tongue is forked to give the reptile a stereo perspective regarding the direction of odors. Mammals evolved from reptiles and some use the vestiges of this organ. The “flemen display” looks like a grimmace, but the mammal is exposing a rudemantry jacobson’s organ to pick up subtle odors. This is usually done by males to percei
