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New genome shows Neanderthal trace in humans
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Fox



Joined: 04 Mar 2009

PostPosted: Wed May 12, 2010 5:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

JMO wrote:

I don't think that's really how it works. We got less hairy for a reason, either because it gave an advantage or because it was a side effect of an advantage. It didn't happen gradually as each homo species was more intelligent. We just happened to be the hominid to survive.


Getting less hairy need not be because it's an advantage in and of itself. Species can lose exceptional traits over time simply because they aren't selected for. A thick coat of fur is an exceptional trait, not a base-line value; if there's no value in retaining such a coat of fur, it will become less and less pronounced over time.

Humans learning to clothe themselves could have resulted in fur becoming virtually meaningless, which in turn would mean that overtime you'd expect to see it become less prominent.
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.38 Special



Joined: 08 Jul 2009
Location: Pennsylvania

PostPosted: Wed May 12, 2010 6:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

A 15 minute call could save 15% or more in body hair.





Very Happy
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JMO



Joined: 18 Jul 2006
Location: Daegu

PostPosted: Wed May 12, 2010 10:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Fox wrote:
JMO wrote:

I don't think that's really how it works. We got less hairy for a reason, either because it gave an advantage or because it was a side effect of an advantage. It didn't happen gradually as each homo species was more intelligent. We just happened to be the hominid to survive.


Getting less hairy need not be because it's an advantage in and of itself. Species can lose exceptional traits over time simply because they aren't selected for. A thick coat of fur is an exceptional trait, not a base-line value; if there's no value in retaining such a coat of fur, it will become less and less pronounced over time.

Humans learning to clothe themselves could have resulted in fur becoming virtually meaningless, which in turn would mean that overtime you'd expect to see it become less prominent.


I thought the general idea was that it was preferable to have exposed flesh on the Savannah to facilitate sweating? But yea, my main point was that we aren't some kind of pinnacle of evolution.

edit: just looked it up. this interesting article from 2003 has several ideas on the subject.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/19/science/why-humans-and-their-fur-parted-ways.html

One interesting implication from two cited studies in the article is that hominids have been naked for over a million years but clothed only for the last 60000 years or so. Ideas for our nakedness include it being

* a sexual identifier of being louse and bug free
* a throwback to when we semi aquatic(never heard this one before)
* a heat regulator
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rollo



Joined: 10 May 2006
Location: China

PostPosted: Thu May 13, 2010 1:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think that there is some confusion when talking about race here. The hominids that are being discussed that had an African origin would probably not share many characteristics of modern day Africans. Race of coarse is a modern day construct which most paleoentologists ignore or dont really see any use for it. I remember clearly a professor of mine ws asked a question about the " african eve" hypothisis, his answer that the Type of DNA testing that had been done seemed questionable. He was nuked in the press called a racist, probably cost him a head of department job at an ivy league school. Of coarse the hominid animal that was being discussed was not a modern human belonged to hominid but not homo Sapien and of coarse would have belonged to no "racial" type that exists today. In the end the woman who had suggested the Hypotheisis also stated that she thought there had been a problem in the testing. the point I am trying to make is that modern day "race" has little to do with these animals. It ended okay for my professor, who got his dream job but dont confuse these creatures with what we think of modern humans. Attributes such as skin color may have changed over time maybe more than once.

We seem to be evolving smaller dentition and that seems to be a fairly recent change and also it has been suggested that our eyes have only been able to distinguish certain shades of colors such as violet in only the last couple of centuries.
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