How did social scientists know that Australopithecus Afarensis was hairy?

Question

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australopithecus_afarensis for a few pictures.

They know they are biped because of the pelvic bone, and they know that they were very, very hairy. How did they find that out with the bones they excavated?

Answer 1

They don't know when we became relatively hairless. There is a largely discredited theory that we became hairless to make heat loss more efficient. That is seriously flawed reasoning as lack of naked Arabs cooling off in the desert would demonstrate. There is another theory that has a gene that regulates skin color that is about 1.2 million years old if memory serves. Since the theory ignores the fact the face of most anthropoids is exposed to the sun, it makes that theory sketchy. They don't even know if Neanderthals were completely covered with hair. It is all just a guess.

Answer 2

I a medium that fossilizes quick enough such as a limestone they may have been able to see brush like marks from the hair in the surrounding soil. If one was caught in glaciation that could preserve it long enough for us to actually see the hair. It's been too long since Freshmen year Anthropology, but I think Afarensus was only discovered in the rift valley, so no glaciation there.

Also they could have placed him in the evolutionary scale at a place where everyone was hairy so it's just assumed.

Answer 3

It is not about the fossil bones. It is about the lack of physical evidence – including tools that could have been used for making clothes – that is observed in later hominid species. Nor is there evidence that they built structures for either shelter or storage, practiced ritual burial, created art, domesticated any plants or animals, or did most of the things that later evolved to become common characteristics that we associate with human behavior.

Answer 4

Well, after Bravozulu, there is not much to add. They don't know. They also don't know that H. erectus was not hairy. They even depict them with male pattern baldness which is really silly IMO

Answer 5

i don't know but did you ever hear of nutcracker man who was discovered by Mary Leakey and is also an australopithecus

Answer 6

You may find what you're looking for here:

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/human-evolution/dn9990