Barbery Apes

[pseudomonas]

Is there any other mammal that has as enthusiastically stupid a distribution of hair as humans? Almost bald all over with a daft patch or two on top that can approach half the total body length seems pretty crazy to me. I guess a horse's tail is nearly as silly, but I think the humans still win that one.

Comments

[juggzy]

That is all explained in Descent of Woman by Elaine Morgan. It was quite the theory to expouse in the seventies. I know of it because my mum went to school with Elaine Morgan, which is a little bit like me going to school with the person who became Ben Goldacre's lecturere in statistical epidemiology. I expect it's genetic, this going to school with people-of-note thing.

[ptc24]

Ah, Elaine Morgan. I got The Scars of Evolution out of the library once, when I was younger. It was a good read; I was greatly disappointed when later on when I read what people had to say about her work. It felt a lot like a beautiful idea being slain by a lot of ugly facts, although the other impression that I got was that I'd have to study an awful lot of science to work out for sure who was right or not, and seeing as I didn't have the time I'd just have to trust institutional science over iconoclastic outsiders who write books.

Part of me feels like it needs to take a shower after writing that.

[tarchannan]

Thanks for asking; this question has wondered through my mind before. Seems to me I once read an explanation attempt somewhere, but have forgotten.

[tarchannan]

70% of body heat gets lost via the head?

[pseudomonas]

yeah, but (if you have straightish hair) having 50cm of hair doesn't help insulate the top of your head much!

[cosmolinguist]

S'a myth, though, innit.

If this were true, they say, humans would be just as cold if they went without a hat as if they went without trousers. "Patently, this is just not the case.

[sunflowerinrain]

Hair on head keeps you warm, especially if long enough to wrap round your neck. I've never been convinced of the usefulness of body hair, but horses' tails are for flicking away flies and biting insects.

[pseudomonas]

Body hair I think keeps me warm. certainly I've felt chillier when wearing tights which collapse my leghair.

[tig_b]

Most of us have hair over the rest of our bodies, but it's usually very fine and short.

Thicker hair on the head also helps protect from sunlight.

I've read a piece that suggests men's tendency to got bald past their 30s wasn't selected against, because most early men died before then!

[pseudomonas]

Oh, I know we have hair over the rest of our bodies, and a certain amount of hair on the head makes sense - but I'd expect maybe an inch or so of hair, like that which serves to protect and insulate most other animals. The head hair we have is longer than that of yaks.

[cosmolinguist]

And things that happen after animals have passed their genes along (which a lot of guys will have by the time they're balding) don't matter so much to evolution anyway.