quote:

---

Pigs are sort of nakie.

---

Really? Where do they get the bristles for those wonderful paintbrushes from?

I thought they were entirely covered with hair.
 

---

Posted by Ophelia (Member # 653) on :
 
well arent we all covered in hair? fine and just the tiniest bit of fuzz but hair none the less

(That was Ben, in case you couldn't tell from the posting style. This is now Lindsay, who enjoys capitalization and punctuation.)

[ March 08, 2005, 08:30 PM: Message edited by: Ophelia ]
 

---

Posted by TMedina (Member # 6649) on :
 
Our Dwarven model appears!

I think pigskin actually has a thicker coat than most people realize - but then again, I usually only deal with pigs at the end of a fork.

-Trevor
 

---

Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
 
Elephants, Hippos, Rhinos etc are not furry.
 

---

Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
 
Chinese Crested Hairless dogs.
 

---

Posted by Astaril (Member # 7440) on :
 
Actually, it's not really that strange a fact at all that we're hairless... We developed in pretty much the same hot environment that elephants and rhinos and hippos did. We have no hair because it's easier to lose heat by evaporation that way. We also have an incredible ability to sweat (up to 12 litres a day, if the water lost can be replaced!). Even in modern populations, children who grow up in hot environments undergo a kind of developmental acclimatization and develop a denser distribution of active sweat glands. And there's the old taller/thinner people in warm environments and shorter/stockier people in cold environments adaptation too. We'd have to invent clothing and discover fire and technology before we could have moved to any colder environments, but we'd likely have lost our hair long before that point. We're pretty well suited to survive hot environments still without technology so long as there's enough water but we'd never make it up north without clothes. Huh. And now the running scene from "Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner" is going through my head... There's tonnes of neat little hot/cold adaptations we've got actually.

Oh, and I read somewhere a while ago that donkeys can drink 8 litres of water in one or two minutes to keep from heat dehydration! I don't know how true this is, but it really impresses me! Has anyone else heard this?? I guess it's not really...common...conversation topic for most people, perhaps...
 

---

Posted by AntiCool (Member # 7386) on :
 
In The Naked Ape, it is conjectured that humans are mostly hairless because we come from a marine background. Most of the non-furry mammals are either marine or spend a lot of time in the water -- whales, dolphins, hippoes, pigs, etc..
 

---

Posted by Telperion the Silver (Member # 6074) on :
 
Except we do have hair all over us... tiny tiny hairs all over. Just look at your arm or leg...and of course that big mop on top of our heads.

I bet clothing was a reason for our hair loss.
And as for warm climates...what about the pale Euro breeds of the North?
 

---

Posted by Telperion the Silver (Member # 6074) on :
 
Actually what really interests me is why men have beards and then loose the hair on top of our heads? What's the reason for that?
 

---

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
 
Gravity. Hair, like water, flows downhill.
 

---

Posted by Astaril (Member # 7440) on :
 
Huh. That's...different. I hadn't ever heard of that theory, to be honest. My first impulse is to call it largely crock simply because I've been taught in the savannah theory, but there's some interesting points. There are some major problems with the way it's presented and things that are left out that make me wary though. For instance...

quote:

---

It has been suggested that humans became hairless "to prevent overheating in the savannah" ...[or] "to facilitate sweat-cooling". But again many species resort to sweat-cooling quite effectively without needing to lose their hair.

---

quote:

---

One hypothesis used to be that they first developed big brains and began to make tools, and finally walked on their hind legs to free their hands for carrying weapons. But we now know that it was bipedalism that came first, before the big brain and tool-making.

However, if their habitat had become flooded, they would have been forced to walk on their hind legs whenever they came down to the ground in order to keep their heads above water.

---

quote:

---

Except we do have hair all over us... tiny tiny hairs all over. Just look at your arm or leg

---

quote:

---

And as for warm climates...what about the pale Euro breeds of the North?

---

Errrm...what about them? Sorry, not sure what you're referring to, or if that was aimed at my post above or not!
 

---

Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
 
I got started on this topic when I saw a horse that I then described as "white with black hair." Upon reflection, I realized that he had more white "hair" than black "hair," and got all puzzled as to why horses have hair and then have hair.

OK, going to bed...
 

---

Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
 
Oh, and Astaril... what's your background? You seem to know a lot about this issue.
 

---

Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
 
The Descent of Woman also goes into the marine-mammal theory.
 

---

Posted by Narnia (Member # 1071) on :
 
kq, you read my mind! Just the subject of this thread reminded me of the Sam the Eagle speech about....NUDITY!!

*giggle*
 

---

Posted by Leonide (Member # 4157) on :
 
i just need to post this

Mexican Hairless!
 

---

Posted by aspectre (Member # 2222) on :
 
There is far less to the AquaticApeTheory than might be supposed from reading just it's proponents arguments.

[ March 09, 2005, 03:09 AM: Message edited by: aspectre ]
 

---

Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
 
Hairy Men

quote:

---

A study of 117 male members of the brainy society Mensa (you have to have an IQ of over 140 to join) showed that Mensa members had a tendency to thicker body hair - and the most intelligent had hair on their backs as well as on their chests

---

Farmgirl
(who loves hairy men)
 

---

Posted by Astaril (Member # 7440) on :
 
First, the picture of that hairless dog is hilarious and kind of scary at the same time because it reminds me of a person!

Second, Annie, I'm finishing up a degree in physical anthropology/archaeology so that's where I know this stuff from. I'm no expert certainly but any anth programme will cover all the basic evolutionary theory. I also did a big project last year on heat/cold adaptations and got really interested.

Third, aspectre, yeah, there's a lot of arguments against the AAT to be made. Largely, as I and your link pointed out, that they simply ignore evidence to the contrary or change around meanings of previous theories to argue their own, and that in itself destroys the basis of their argument. Let alone that most of their pro-AAT arguments don't actually work.
 

---

Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
 
That's really interesting, FG. I wonder what the correllation is. I would think that maybe it's ethnic. Maybe hairier ethnic groups are smarter for other reasons. Or maybe the real purpose of hair is to store extra intelligence. I think I'll choose to think of it that way.
 

---

Posted by AntiCool (Member # 7386) on :
 
If hair is used to store extra intelligence, then maybe I should stop shaving.

Now.
 

---

Posted by Astaril (Member # 7440) on :
 
Funny, all my super-genius nearly-retired profs are mostly bald. At least the male ones. I guess all their intellihair is on their backs or something. Eeeeauugh! Bad mental images! *runs away to hide*
 

---

Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
 
What has really helped us to evolve into our near nude naked state is the invention of....

the razor.
 

---

Posted by Puppy (Member # 6721) on :
 

quote:

---

First, the picture of that hairless dog is hilarious and kind of scary at the same time because it reminds me of a person!

---

quote:

---

Is there some evolutionary value to having a distinctive feature that separates us from other mammals, giving us an easy means of identifying other humans as being different from most primates? I'm just thinking that if a hairless mammal naturally "looks human" to a human, that may be significant ... somehow ...

---

Apparantly so. There's a lot of speculation that the horns and shields on treceratops and similar dinosaurs are for ID purposes moreso than defense. Same with antelopes who travel in herds with very similar species.

Dagonee
 

---

Posted by 0range7Penguin (Member # 7337) on :
 
First of, Telporion, thats pretty scary.
Secondly we all have hair, as do all mammals, its fur were short of.
 

---

Posted by Telperion the Silver (Member # 6074) on :
 

 

---

Posted by mothertree (Member # 4999) on :
 

quote:

---

A study of 117 male members of the brainy society Mensa (you have to have an IQ of over 140 to join) showed that Mensa members had a tendency to thicker body hair - and the most intelligent had hair on their backs as well as on their chests

---