What survival disadvantage of increased body hair caused early man to lose most of it?

Question

What survival advantage caused primates to evolve so much body hair in the first place? Do you consider this a contradiction?

ATTENTION

I DO *NOT* BELIEVE IN BIBLICAL CREATION THEORIES. I THINK THEY ARE BULLSHlT

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clothing

Captain Atheism,

I think you should brush up on your evolution theory. An evolutionary trend like this occuring by "dumb luck" as you put it flys in the face of Darwinism. Your statement that there is no particular reason and that it just happened eclipses the dogmatism of any religion.

Answer 1

As man began to wear clothing, it became advantageous to have less body hair. That way a man could wear more skins in the winter and fewer in the summer thereby better regulating his body temperature.

Answer 2

I think it was the first woman who rejected a ghastly hairy man as a mate because she felt like she was coupling with an animal rather than a man. (They likely smelled the same! Imagine the "fragrance" of a bear just emerging from hibernation)

All it takes is a turned off chick for men to begin their transformation to something more ^*&kable. We all know that most men WON'T pass up a chance to have sex no matter what their circumstance is, and I would venture a guess that neaderthal's had far less "manners" than contemporary men. O.K., SOME contemporary men.

Really guys, how many of you have watched the shaving commercial with the beautiful young woman stroking the cheek of a freshly shaved guy and DIDN'T think about being that clean shaved guy who got the girl? (Even if the guy was way too pretty to be straight-you wanted to BE that guy)

Yeah, I vote for grossed out women. If horribly hairy guys couldn't get a mate then they couldn't procreate. Results- super hairy DNA didn't make it down the bloodlines.

Answer 3

Not all adaptations have direct survival benefit. Many are simply side effects of some other adaptation that don't cause a significant disadvantage, or are merely a random mutation that doesn't cause much harm.

But in the case of body hair, I think there is a real advantage not to have any - IF - you can wear clothes to keep warm or block the sun. The reason is that body hair gives parasites a place to hide. In animals that don't have the ability to make and wear clothing, the advantage of hair outweighs this disadvantage.

Answer 4

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Answer 5

I don't think it was a survival thing. I'd say it was more dumb luck than anything else. The smarter "race" simply had less hair than the dumber ones. No particular reason why, it just happened. At the same time, those dumber ones may have also had an appendix that allowed them to change the color of their feces at will. :) But the important thing was, the smart ones had the brain, so they used that brain to overcome the fact that they had less hair, and a more useless appendix. But the brain was the true tool of the modern man.

Answer 6

in general as man evolved they eventually started realizing that they can make some sort of clothing to heat them. eventually the increased warm of certain material let man lose its hair because there was not a great need for it for warmth anymore.

Answer 7

The strangest actual scientific theory I've heard is that at one point, man went through an aquatic stage, and since smooth skin had less drag, it was better.

Answer 8

If u got alot of hair then u gotta groom it; thus less time for hunting and mating. When you get a big brain, you can kill an animal and use his pelt for warmth.

So those homo habilis or whatever, eventually lost out to a bigger brain.

Answer 9

Differing climates and needs caused early man to adapt to his surroundings, even by using his own brain. Evolving and adapting to new surroundings results in changes of physical appearance and biological functions, as well as higher brain function.

Answer 10

I think it was just vanity. Hair was used to keep warm.Once we started developing concepts of clothes, the hair eventually disappeared. They believe neanderthals started covering their women in an attempt to keep other tribes from stealing them.Ugh,woman!