If humans lost their body hair because of a period of evolution living on the sea shore......?

Question

How long would this have had to last? I thought evolution was slow, but this hair loss along with the change in shape of the nose did not have very long to take place if it is to fit in with the known fossil record. Over what period could it have taken place?

I am very much sold on the idea, but it seems a drastic change. I am wondering if it could have happened as a freak occurrance in one individual: perhaps called Adam?

Answer 1

Nothing caused humans to lose their hair - either quickly or slowly.

We were created non-hairy.

Apes were created hairy - they are a completely different kind of animal to humans. The only link is in the minds of evolutionists.

There is certainly no evidence to link ape and man. No fossils (all hominid fossils are clearly ape or clearly human), and no mechanism to add new genetic information.

A vast amount of new information would be required to chagne one to the other. The only proposed mechanism is mutations - but mutations do not add information. All observed mutations are info neutral or lossy. Natural Selection tends to weed out any mutations in any case.

Answer 2

We haven't actually lost any folicles over all this time so the premise of the question is not quite accurate. The question may be better asked, why does hair respond in so many different ways to the environment?

So far the environmental factors are the only ones with credence in evolutionary terms to need or not need hair, and what type of hair it is if you have it.

As some people today have lots of body hair what is being discussed is the average body's hair, which not surprisingly has about as many hairs as any of our ancestors including the apes, what has changed is the quality of the hair, not so much the number of folicles.

Answer 3

The hairlessness may very well have evolved in tandem with a more upright posture, it's called 'the aquatic ape theory'.

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

It's more likely to have been a lake/river, not an ocean, judging by the human need for constant fresh water and our very dilute urine.

Answer 4

I am very much not sold on the idea. I would think that people would be better swimmers at least, had this been the history of the species.

Answer 5

After reading some of the answers, I kinda think we lost the need for body hair when we started using clothes.  I can't think of many creatures that have lost their hair by taking to the water.  Doesn't bother otters or rats very much!  

Maybe we lost our hair over the millennia when we discovered fire.  I'd rather burn a small patch of skin than set fire to a full coat of thick body hair!

Answer 6

I very much doubt that that is what caused human beings to lose all of their hair so quickly. Mainly because a large amount of primates live by sea-shores and rivers, and they still seem to keep their hair.

No, the most obvious cause is because there was no longer a need for it due to the fact that early humans created rough clothes and fire which warmed them, thus, the primary purpose of hair was gone, retreating to the area where most heat escapes, the head.