Why is the human female form so different to the male whereasin animals the form remains the same.?

Question

What I mean is the shape is entirely different. Gorillas, chimpanzees etc still have the same shape. Other animsals and birds have different markings and colour but the shape of the body remains the same.

I hve read all the answers so far but the chimpanzee gorilla and other apes do not have the large breasts and small waists that the human female has They do not have curvy bodies do they and a they are nearer species to us why dont they have the large breasts tifee their babies....and the narrow wwaists and curvy bodies?????

Answer 1

Interesting question. I think the differences between men's and women's bodies boil down to a few things:

Differences in size = males are bigger.
Among the other primates, the relative body sizes between males and females appear to be determined by how many females a given male is mating with. More females means a bigger male. Thus, gorilla males are as much twice the size of the females, and the male has a whole harem of females he needs to defend from other males. Males and females are the same size in monogamous monkeys. Humans are somewhere in the middle, and so some infer that it implies we evolved in a situation where males might have had more than one mate.

Differences in body fat = females are more curvy.
The onset of puberty in human females is triggered when a girl achieves an amount of body fat, i.e. her cycles start when her body fat gets high enough. The higher percent of fat on a woman in part represents an energy reserve that will allow her to carry a pregnancy and nurse a baby. Keep in mind that the curves will be accentuated in a society with a lot of food, so women are curvier in the US than they are in a hunter gatherer society living in the Kalahari, for example. Also note that the age of puberty is going down in places like Europe and the US because girls are reaching the level of body fat needed to trigger puberty at younger ages.

Hips = women have wider hips.
As some of the other answers noted, a baby has to pass through the hips. Humans have a very large brain relative to the size of our body in comparison to other animals. This means a big head at birth. Thus, women's hips have been made wider in order to accomodate those big heads. There is a trade off: widening the hips decreases the efficiency of locomotion, but allows women to have the babies. If you put your hand under your butt when you are sitting, you can feel the spots on your hip bones where the weight rests. On a man, they are about an inch apart (one on either side), while on a woman, they are about three inches apart = that's why many women are not so comfortable on a man's bike seat.

Breasts = human women are the only animals that have enlarged tissue around the mammary glands even when they are not lactating.
In all other mammals, the tissue surrounding the mammary glands is quite flat, except when milk is being produced. Many people don't realize it, but the nipples of men actually have attached ducts and these are not very different from the ducts and mammary glands of a woman who has never been pregnant. Most of the volume of a breast of a woman who has not been pregnant is a pad of fat. This reflects our reproductive scheme: breasts are a visible marker that a girl has reached puberty and is of reproductive age. As noted above, other mammals use various other mechanisms to recognize a sexually mature potential mate, but humans rely on their eyes a lot more. An additional aspect to all this is that, since the breasts are always swollen, it masks which females might be nursing and therefore not fertile, and also which females might already have had babies. This masking, coupled with hidden ovulation in human females (i.e. humans don't go into heat), also plays a role in our social/mating schemes.

I guess that covers the biggest differences. Other things, like body hair, deeper voice, and different facial structures are mostly secondary sexual characteristics that are driven by testosterone in males.

Answer 2

Humans have evolved into a species that is very sight orientated, for mating purposes, whereas many other animals depend on other senses & or seasonal changes to trigger mating ritutuals.

One of the evolutionary characteristics is less hair. This adds more to smooth skin, which is one of the sensory triggers of feelings. Very important when it comes to sensuality (hence the root Sense). When we became more site orintated as a species, we had lost much of our other senses like that of smell, comparitivly to other animals and hearing too.

As someone pointed out, Males of our species has narrow hips, a V-shaped upper body, suggesting that running & strength to be a good provider, visual clues to a potential mate, that this will be suitable to raise children. Likewise it's the later gesticular carrying of human childre that give shape to women. Larger hips, & long legs, voluptuous breasts (now bare with not hair hiding the breasts) are more prominante in females, a visual clue to the male that the female is ready to propigate.

Mating is the biggest reason for the difference in size & shape, & color of many animals, much like many birds, bright plumage attracts mates.

I have to point out that Gorillas, mainly the mountain gorrilla, are differnt, as the Alpha male of the group is much larger than the females, & he has the "sexual" rights to all the females in the group. Same with Chimpanzees...the males are larger than the females.

Answer 3

Our sexual dimorphism (difference in shape/size between the sexes) is in fact fairly small compared to some other species. In some fish, for example, the female is two or three times larger than the male. In many birds, the male is brightly coloured and the female is drab. There's tons of other examples.

Answer 4

This difference is called 'sexual dimorphism' and is *very* common in animal species.

Look at elephant seals, gorillas, bovines (ever looked at a cow vs. a bull?), birds (males are generally more colorful ... compare a peacock with a peahen of the species), frogs, insects (compare the female and male black widow), fish, etc. etc.

With vertebrates this is usually because members of one sex are competing with each other for rights to mate with the other sex. So they develop traits that are useful in that competition, that the other sex does not develop. That's why male peacocks develop that huge tail, and male deer those big antlers ... females don't compete in the same way, so they don't develop them.

--- {edit ... response to your Additional Details) ---

I think you are overestimating the difference in "shape" between male and female humans. They have slightly different proportions and heights, and differences in distribution of fat and hair on their bodies ... but they are no more different than the differences in sexes in many other species. You need to look more closely at the differences between male and female gorillas. The difference between a male and female elephant seal (just to pick a mammal) is huge. And in other animals it can get enormous. The male angler fish is 20-30% the size of the female (she's huge compared to him).

Don't forget that you will naturally be more attuned to the differences between male and female of your own species.

Answer 5

Differences in body forms have to do with the evolutionary role (i.e females being child bearing and thus child oriented and men being free of this thus enabling them to go out and provide food/shelter for that child) that, that particular gender was meant to carry out in order for our species to procreate and continue on for as long as we have. Fundementally what makes any mammal female is the same as what makes humans female and the same goes for male. If you have a good grasp on the physiology and anatomy of humans in general you will see that we are a lot more similar than you may think.

Answer 6

The female of the human species needs large hips and big boobs because the human baby is comparatively large, especially the head. Not so much of an issue with other species.

Answer 7

other animals have this defined difference e.g. the colouful peacock and plain peahen.

perhaps the difference in human shape is related to gender roles e.g. larger/child bearing hips for women and larger/weight bearing shoulders for men. these physical differences may also interpretable as signs of fertility and in turn used as tools in attracting a mate.

the shape of a male or female human being is obvious to us as we are part of that species. we are not so good at telling apart a male or female crocodile as we are not part of theirs - but a crocodile will obviously be able to spot the difference (due to physical form) easier than us.

Answer 8

Its not a fact, what species are you looking at? Check out the common frog, great apes especially gorilla and orang, mandarin ducks.

Answer 9

Men have narrow hips so they can run through the savanna to hunt and broad chests to house large lungs to give them the staying power for the chase and big muscles so that we can wrestle with grizzly bears and dinosaurs in order to protect the women folk.

Women have large and ample fundaments upon which to sit when in the cave.

Answer 10

the forms don't remain the same in other species. often times you will find the female to be either much smaller or much larger, different coloration, etc.