Why Are Humans Relatively Hairless?



Our closet primate relatives -and most mammals, for that matter- are covered with fur. How did humans go hairless? And why do we have hair in the few places we do? This TED Ed lesson from Nina G. Jablonski fills us in on what we know and don't know about the way human hair evolved. -via Digg


Newest 3
Newest 3 Comments

It's easy to see that humans - like so many species - grow more hair on their bodies as they age, so our having less hair than most mammals would seem to be a clear case of neoteny, the retention of childhood traits into adulthood. Neoteny is quite common in humans, like adults who believe in Santa, Satan, or Trump.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
In my opinion evolution is not dfioven by impovement. Evolution works the other way: every individual of each generation has a few variations.. Then evolution places a few boundary conditions and constraints, and selects the best among them... This survival of the fittest is more a kind of "preventing reproduction of below threschold level fitness"... And here is the bad news... if you want to have evolution to remove bad backs form humans, you just challenge the universe or the environmental conditions to stop all humans with below threschold backs to stop reproducing... Which would presumably select me and you out of the gene pool... In my view evolution is more a kind of maniac killing everything it doesn't consider fit enough according to a short time mood than the great improover... Take a look at all the extinct species... there are in my opinion much more that the few ones still foraging on this planet... I took me myself a long time to adopt this view oin evolution. By the way, i think the Walmart-thing is something completely different... and is presumably not so much related to evolution...
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
Just as Pokemon, we evolved to have less hair. Though it does beg the question: if humans are evolving, how come 99% of people at walmart definitely not evolved. And how come I have a bad back from genetics coming from both my mom and dads side. It would've been nice for evolution to evolve us out of that at some point. But I digress, evolution is real and believe you me - it is awesome.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
Login to comment.




Email This Post to a Friend
"Why Are Humans Relatively Hairless?"

Separate multiple emails with a comma. Limit 5.

 

Success! Your email has been sent!

close window
X

This website uses cookies.

This website uses cookies to improve user experience. By using this website you consent to all cookies in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

I agree
 
Learn More