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02 Aug 2016 11:38 #315526
by ketchim
Unlike hairy chimpanzees and bonobos – and all other primates –
most of our skin is on display. We have evolved this way, even though fur is beneficial:
it insulates and protects the skin, and in some cases acts as a useful camouflage.
So if it is so advantageous, why did we lose so much of it?
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02 Aug 2016 11:39 #315527
by ketchim
It might not seem strange, because we are used to having relatively little hair
covering our bodies. But when we compare ourselves to the rest of the mammals,
and our closest living ape cousins, it is downright bizarre that we are the only
large-bodied mammal with so little of it :-\
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02 Aug 2016 11:43 #315530
by ketchim
"No one supposes that the nakedness of the skin is any direct advantage to man;
his body, therefore, cannot have been divested of hair through natural selection,"
Charles
Darwin wrote in The Descent of Man
It was Charles Darwin who first taught the public that humans are descended
from an ape-like ancestor.
He also wondered why we had so little hair..
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02 Aug 2016 11:44 #315532
by ketchim
He proposed that we lost much of our fur due to sexual selection:
we preferred hairless mates, and that is why hairlessness became common :-[
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02 Aug 2016 11:53 #315535
by ketchim
Between two and three millions years ago our ancestors began to inhabit
more open savannahs. This meant they were out in the Sun's glaring heat for many
more hours each day...
This move into open spaces offered an explanation for our lack of hair !!
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