Re: Why is Homo sapiens hairless?
mscob@aol.com
26 Nov 1996 03:57:51 GMT
This is a question from an amateur: Roh wrote, in response to Jose
Herculano's neotony explanation of hair loss:
"However, neoteny is just a biomechanical pathway dictated by evolution.
That is, if evolution 'selects' a smaller face (for whatever reason),
neoteny is the process by which the adult morphotype is altered. This does
not mean that we (as hominids) arbitrarily adopt phenotypes from juvenile
stages in ancestral species. A phenotype must be selected for, for a
reason."
My question is: might not neotony involve more changes than those
selected for? Don't single mutations often cause multiple changes, as the
substances coded for have multiple functions?
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