Why did humans loose the body hair that many of our primate relatives still have?

Question

Just curious, considering every other primate, such as the chimpanzee, still have complete body hair yet humans do not...perhaps an evolutionary thing?

Answer 1

probably never had it.

Answer 2

Have you not read the 12th Planet book?

When the gods came and genetically manipulated their seed with the seed of Neanderthal one of the criteria was less hair than Neanderthal

Answer 3

Simple, when we touch ground and began to run, we also began to lose heat by sweating... So it makes senses that if you produced too much body heat to need to sweat, then evolutionary forces hair loss... So we began to lose more and more body hairs until to reach the point we are now!

Answer 4

An old theory was that it was to cool the body.  You don't see Arabs taking off their cloths in the desert to cool off so I doubt that.  Hair insulates and the amount of heat removed is the same.  It doesn't cool you any faster not having hair.

It is probably a combination of wearing cloths and sexual selection.   We probably became much less hairy when we didn't need the physical barrier it provides.

Answer 5

The lord our god, Allah Jesus Mohammed decided we shall not need the hair.

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Answer 6

maybe it was too hot

Answer 7

Hi there,

Maybe that can be a further proof (on top of the plentiful evidence) that man is not from apes. We did not evolved.

Scientist are debunking the theory of evolution.

Answer 8

Technically while we are closely related to Chimpanzees we are not descended from them. Maybe when the primate line split between Homo Hablius and the Chimp ancestor our ancestor evolved a lighter coat of hair as a result of a change in evolutionary nitche.

Answer 9

My educated guess is that it's almost all sexual selection.  The smoother ones had preference in mating over thousands of generations for some reason.

Answer 10

Well, humans evolved into better dressed creatures; hence no need for all the body hair.

Answer 11

I take it you have not been to the beach, lately! =)

Answer 12

I have read a few things that make me think that at some point near-humans lived along the ocean and were swimming alot. I would think sea water could have taken it off.  That's just me and my thought about it.

Answer 13

I don't know that anyone really knows.  Cooling was one theory, yes, but there are plenty of mammals who stay perfectly cool in worse environments than the one we evolved in, yet they retained their hair.  It's such a radical change, yet every time I read about human evolution, they gloss over that bit.  I think it's still a mystery.

Answer 14

That was to cool the body. The larger brain required better cooling & evaporation of sweat was a good way to cool it by pumping cooler blood to the brain. Hair of Africans is structured to keep the sun off the head & thus keep the brain cooler.  Later sapiens that moved to cooler climates did not have the cooling problems associated with warm climates.

Answer 15

We still have hair all over our bodies.  There are hair folicals over 90% of our bodies.  Over the years the hairs became thinner and thinner.  The reason I think is to propagate feelings of love and closeness.  Crucial to the development of the human brain/mind and also to the close bonds we experience with family and loved ones.

Answer 16

This works to disprove evolution-there is no advantage.

Man has more DNA in common with mealworms than chimps-fact not to be ignored by the HONEST!

Ed?  Your "cooling" hypothesis of nappy hair is so bogus.  Visit S. America?  Hello?  Straight-haired aboriginees happily  frolicking at the equator?

Answer 17

At first, the cooling purpose was suggested, but now scientists aren't sure. It could have been sexual selection or genetic drift...

Answer 18

clothes, better shelter from elements, higher body fat % just some guesses