Why do humans not have fur and a tail

Question

Most mammals do. If we had fur it would be interesting with all the different colours, people would no doubt die their fur in to different colours as well. Also we would not need cloths which would be practical

Answer 1

We do. It's just not as thick as some other animals have. And we do come in lots of interesting colours (other animals have different coloured skin, too.)

Answer 2

cuz we humans have garments to protect our skin, only mammals need tails for balance and protection from enemies

Answer 3

we just evolved i guess

Answer 4

It's the way God made us.

Answer 5

We do.

If you look at the human skeleton where the pelvis (hip) bones are at the back is a stump. This is what is left from evolution where our tails used to be.

As for fur...well as evolution took hold our fur was replaced with hair, some you see (hair on our heads, underarms etc) other is hair on the skin.

Answer 6

It's all in the genes! The whole of the ape family lost tails during evolution the shape of the pelvis changed to allow better movement on land and a tail was not much use. The vestigial tail is still present.

The lack of hair, although not complete, is a by-product of human development. Humans have a relatively long gestation and yet babies are born almost completely helpless and take a long time to reach independence compared to other primates. Biologically, humans remain in a juvenile state for a long time. One mammalian juvenile characteristic is lack of hair and this remains with us throughout our lives. The long development time allows the brain time to develop its complexity, which is the defining human characteristic and loss of hair is just a side-effect of this.

Answer 7

We do have fur and a tail.

The fur (hair) is very sparse on most of our body because a lack of body hair must have given some of our ancestors an advantage in finding a mate (it certainly does now).

The tail is present at the base of the spine and the bones are fused to form the coccyx. This is the vestigial tail. The tail became obsolete when our ancestors descended from the trees and became a definite liability following the invention of trousers.  

Answer 8

well we do have hair on our arms and legs.

i would clasify that as fur.

and we dont have tails because if you beleve in evelution thats just how we evoulved,.

but if your religious then i guess god didnt want us to have tails

hope i helped

Answer 9

because we have evolved, numb nuts.

Answer 10

A tail is formed by extra vertebrae at the bottom of the spine, where our coccyx is, and this has evolved out. We evolved from primates, and those closest to us in the family tree- the apes- also have no tails. Gorillas and orangutans for instance. Whereas monkeys do.

The fur just evolved out too for whatever reason. Maybe it's because mates with less hair were preferred? We still have hairs all over our body, thy're just not as long or dense as an apes.

Answer 11

Good question.  We are apes, and like other apes we do not have tails.  Like other apes, but unlike other mammals, we can raise our arms above our heads to swing from branches, so that could be why the tail became redundant.

We do have tails at one stage as embryos, and the coxxyx at the base of the spine has, fused together, bones corresponding to tailbones.

As to why we have so little fur left, I hope someone can tell us the answer.

Answer 12

We would not have any race problems then with the skin hidden

Answer 13

FUR ON THE BODY OF MOST OF THE MAMMALS IS FOR THE PURPOSE FOR INSULATION &HUMAN HAV WELL DEVELOP SYSTEM FOR INSULATION.  IN THE MOTHER"S WOMB FOETUS HAV TAIL BUT SLOWLEY-SLOWLEY TAIL GETS CONSUME AS FOETUS ACHIEVEITS GROWTH PHASE.

Answer 14

Way back in the 1970's I believe, a then famous zoologist, Desmond Morris, wrote a best selling book called 'The Naked Ape'.  Whether it is is still in print or not I don't know, but he was something of a celebrity of his time in explaining human evolution in an entertaining way to the layperson.  Try and get hold of it.  He came from the line of thinking following Leakey and was also a keen observer of body language, reseaching its primitive origins.

I can't remember the whole explanation, but it may have been something to do with a stage in our development where we were aquatic, which led to stramlining and loss of body hair except in vultnerable areas or areas where pheromones could be trapped and secreted to attract mates, eg under arms, pubes etc.

Without our developing the way we did we would likely not have evolved language.  Our body shapes are designed to meet our needs.  We no longer need to climb trees as we have learnt to hunt, gather, and also farm. Maybe tails just shrunk generation after generaion as we no longer used them.  The bottom of our spine resembles the vestiges of a tail.  

Get the book, it was a huge hit in its time.

Answer 15

humans do have tails when they are embryos but they don't grow in line with the rest of the body and thus dissappear!

Answer 16

i personally think that living inside evolved us, we don't need to stay out in the freezing winter cold.....but that's just a theory.