Why humans and their fur parted ways
Posted by Chip_Unicorn (Brent Edwards) on Wed 20 Aug 2003 - 14:17
According to Why Humans and Their Fur Parted Ways (N. Y. Times, registration may be required), "Humans lost their body hair, they say, to free themselves of external parasites that infest fur — blood-sucking lice, fleas and ticks and the diseases they spread." Oddly enough, although the article dates our loss of fur about 1.2 million years ago, we've only been wearing clothes for about 42,000 to 72,000 years.
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Chip_Unicorn (Brent Edwards) — read stories — contact (login required)an Unicorn from Seattle, WA
The truth will make you fret.
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And this wont be the last theory. I have read two others in years past:
1: Fur inhibits sweat cooling in hot climates, making lengthy tracking of prey exhausting.
2: In a proto-human `aquatic era', (distributed body fat and partially webbed fingers are offered as `proof'), fur wasnt useful. It increased drag in the water, and was cold and soggy when leaving it.
If fur isn't useful in the water, then why do otters do so well? And sea lions, etc.
Smile! The world could use another happy person.
That's pretty easy...
The water around otters tends to be much colder than the water near where humans evolved.
Plus, otter fur is much much more densely furred than primate fur. Helps keep the water out.
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