text: Olfactory processing of chemical signals like pheromones exists in all animal phyla and is thus the oldest of the senses. It has been suggested that it serves survival by generating appropriate behavioral responses to the signals of threat, sex and dominance status among members of the same species.
  Furthermore, it has been suggested that in the evolution of unicellular prokaryotes to multicellular eukaryotes, primordial pheromone signaling between individuals may have evolved to paracrine and endocrine signaling within individual organisms.
  Some authors assume that approach-avoidance reactions in animals, elicited by chemical cues, form the phylogenetic basis for the experience of emotions in humans.