Asnout is the protruding portion of an animal's face, consisting of its nose, mouth, and jaw. In many animals, the structure is called amuzzle,[1]rostrum,beak orproboscis. The wet furless surface around the nostrils of the nose of manymammals is called therhinarium (colloquially this is the "cold wet snout" of some mammals). The rhinarium is often associated with a stronger sense ofolfaction.
Snouts are found on many mammals in a variety of shapes. Some animals, including ursines and great cats, have box-like snouts, while others, like shrews, have pointed snouts.Pig snouts are flat and cylindrical.
Strepsirrhine primates have muzzles, as dobaboons.Great apes have reduced muzzles, with the exception being human beings, whoseface does not have protruding jaws nor a snout but merely ahuman nose.[2]
The muzzle begins at thestop, just below the eyes, and includes the dog's nose and mouth. In the domestic dog, most of the upper muzzle contains organs for detectingscents. The loose flaps of skin on the sides of the upper muzzle that hang to different lengths over themouth are called 'flews'.
The muzzle is innervated by one of the twelve pairs of cranial nerves, which start in the brain and emerge through the skull to their target organs. Other destinations of these nerves are the eyeballs, teeth and tongue.
The muzzle shape of adomestic dog ranges in shape depending upon thebreed, from extremely long and thin (dolichocephalic), as in theRough Collie, to nearly nonexistent because it is so flat (extremebrachycephalic), as in thepug. Some breeds, such as manysled dogs andspitz types, have muzzles that somewhat resemble the originalwolf's in size and shape, and others in the less extreme range have shortened it somewhat (mesocephalic) as in many hounds.
The dictionary definition ofsnout at Wiktionary