ABSTRACT
When we are watching our chimpanzee cousins at the zoo, we see similarities with ourselves, but we see big differences too. We are upright, taller, smarter, etc., but most obvious of all is that they are covered with thick fur while we are virtually hairless. If we had a common ancestor with fur-covered apes a few million years ago as DNA evidence tells us, then why did we lose almost all of that fur? And when do we think that hair loss occurred in the human evolutionary story. It might have been very difficult for me to provide a scientific answer to these questions, if I hadn’t come across an article in the Scientific American magazine written by Nina Jablonski. She had analyzed the problem and arrived at promising conclusions. Consequently, this chapter is based mainly on her article.
32.2 WHY DO MOST MAMMALS HAVE FUR?
