Re: Hair and AAS
pete (VINCENT@REG.TRIUMF.CA)
17 Oct 1995 09:21:35 GMT
David Froehlich (eohippus@curly.cc.utexas.edu) sez:
What I
`pointing out is that hairlessness could have occured any time after
`the last common ancestor of humans and chimps (or if you prefer,
`chimps and gorillas) and before we have evidence of it (possibly cave art
`depictions???). AAS assumes that it is functionally related to an
`aquatic episode (this basically assumes what you are trying to
`demonstrate, that hair was lost in an aquatic episode). I do not buy
`this assumption. Please defend it.
One could reasonably speculate that if it wasn't gone already,
body hair would be detrimental to a creature huddling around
a campfire at night. Whether this might amount to significant
selective pressure I don't know, but if my overcoat caught
fire, I'd be mighty appreciative of the fact that it wasn't
attached to my skin. So, say, by h. erectus, it's disappearing?
--
==========================================================================
vincent@triumf.ca <== faster % Pete Vincent
vincent@freenet.vancouver.bc.ca % Disclaimer: all I know I
% learned from reading Usenet.
|