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Humans are the flake of the mammalian class . Hipposand naked mole rats aside , about every other mammal has fur covering its body . Humans are practically naked , besides the hair on our head . So why are people mostly hairless asunder from our head pilus ?
First , it ’s crucial to interpret why mammals have fur in the first lieu , said Mark Pagel , an evolutionary biologist at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom . Fur keeps fauna warm when it ’s dusty at night and protects them from the Sunday during the twenty-four hours . Human ascendent were able to misplace most of their body hair because they had the alone power to even off with fervour , protection and article of clothing .
That explain why our human ancestors could survive without most of their tomentum , but not why it disappeared over clip . Hairlessness must have given humans some kind ofevolutionaryadvantage . There are three main theories about what the advantage could have been , Pagel tell Live Science .
Related : Fur , woollen , hair : What ’s the difference ?
First , a thick coat of fur could have conduct ancient humans to overheat in the hot noonday sun . " If you ’re wear a great self-aggrandising fur coat in the middle of the African savanna in the red-hot time of year , you ’re going to be way too hot , " Pagel say . " Would n’t it be courteous if you could take your slap-up magnanimous pelt coat off ? Which is what we did . " Moreover , humans evolved to have more effort glands than our primate relatives . If we had kept our long trunk haircloth , it likely would have gotten overcharge with sweat , which would have made it hard for the fret to vaporize and cool us down , Yana Kamberov , an assistant prof of genetic science at the University of Pennsylvania , previously tell Live Science .
However , the so - called body - cool down hypothesis break down to explicate some aspects of human body hair patterns , such as why man tend to be hairier than woman . Of note , homo are report with diminutive and colorless vellus hair’s-breadth , except on the palm tree , soles of the feet , sass and nipples , Kamberov antecedently secern Live Science . internal secretion that emerge during pubescence can transform some of these vellus hair into farseeing , colored terminal hairs . But aside from this sometimes seedy body haircloth , long whisker tends to grow only on our head .
The 2d possibility , known as the aquatic anthropoid conjecture , proposes that ancient humans spent a lot of time in water . Fur weighed them down while swimming , so they step by step lost their hair . However , there is no grounds that humans spent a significant amount of sentence in water supply during the evolutionary past , so Pagel finds this conjecture difficult to think . It also fails to explain why man did n’t develop to gain their fur back after leaving the waterside .
Pagel declare oneself the third theory , the ectoparasite speculation , in a 2003 discipline write in the journalProceedings of the Royal Society B : Biological Sciences . Ectoparasites are parasites that endure on the outside of the server ’s body . These parasite — which includelice , ticksand fleas — are a major cause of disease and mortality across mintage . Ectoparasites may be less attracted to hairless skin , and it may be loose to get rid of them when they ’re not sink in fur . In good turn , having less tomentum , and thus fewer sponge , may have presented a endurance advantage .
But if hair can lead to harm , why did we keep it on our heads ?
As biped , or animals that walk upright on two branch , our heads are directly exposed to the sun . Near the equator , where humans germinate , sun exposure can be overbearing , and head hair helps people avoid overheating . " It ’s sort of a build - in hat , " Pagel say .
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Head pilus also helps hold back warmth at night . " Ourbrainsare relatively little compared to the rest of our bodies , but they ’re hugely metabolically active , " Pagel said . This activity produces passion , and heading hair could isolate this expanse of concentrated heat .
intimate excerption also may play a role . Humans do n’t just have head haircloth ; we title it . Ancient people may have , too . Hair does n’t fossilise well , so researchers do n’t have much lineal grounds of this , except for maintain mummy in places such asEgyptandPeru . However , research worker have examine modern - twenty-four hour period endemic people who have n’t had contact with the outside humanity and establish that they also style their tomentum , suggesting that their ancestors did , too . This hair care may serve draw in a mate , Pagel said .
" We do n’t just have head hair , " Pagel said , " but we have it in a form that we can make really attractive to members of the opposite sex . "
Originally published on Live Science .
