Re: A hairy question
(no name) ((no email))
18 May 1995 23:28:05 GMT
>: Is there any way at all to determine from fossil evidence if/where/how
>:much
>: an animal had hair?
>
>From what I have learned in university so far it is not possible
>unless an actual imprint of hair has been preserved. Of course
>if the fossil can be IDed as mammal than it can be inferred.
That's pretty much what I thought, but to take it one step further: I'm
wondering if/when hominids may have lost much of the hair over their bodies.
I'm also wondering if any other animals have hair which continues to grow as
ours does; I don't know of any. If there are none, then it would be
reasonable to assume that hominids took on this characteristic at some point
(but only on their heads). So hominids would have had the hair on most of
their bodies drastically reduced, while the hair on their heads began to grow
more.
I don't know what all this means, but it sure is interesting.
Dave B.
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