Abstract: This paper reports the means, sexual differences and developmental features of nasal linear measurements taken among 1116 children (2-7 years) in Sichuan. There is no significant difference between the male and the female in the sellion to subnasale distance in most ages, but there is difference in a few periods such as 4-6.5 years, and the measurement in male is longer. In both sexes the growth curves for the measurements rise with age, and there are 1-2 spurts which suggest that the nasal development is closely related to particular stage, and the developmental curves of 2 indices show little change with age. 4 of these curves have 1-2 decussations in some ages, suggesting that the females develop faster in those periods. Among the nasal forms in both sexes, leptorrhiny is the most common type, mesorrhiny is less, platyrrhiny the least.

Key words: Anthropometry; Nose; Infant; Preschool child; Sichuan