The naked truth
By Robert Uhlig, Technology Correspondent
HUMANS lost their fur because they are emotional animals and prefer
hairless women - albeit "with long, silky hair" - according to a
controversial new theory put forward by a Cambridge professor.
"Human nakedness resulted from sexual selection by the males fancying
females with naked bodies," said Dr Charles Goodhart, a fellow at
Gonville-Caius college, at the Linnean Society of London yesterday.
Natural selection also explains why women's hair grows longer than men's,
argues Dr Goodhart. His thesis will be published in next April's issue of
the Biologist.
He says women's hair grew so long as to be an encumbrance in primitive
life, so its excessive length must have been evolved by men "preferring
women to have long, silky hair".
Dr Goodhart believes that humans lost fur which covered most of their body
to signal anger, fear and embarrassment. If fur still covered our faces,
nobody would be able to see our facial skin flushed with rage, or pale
with fright.
But Dr Chris Stringer, principal researcher in human origins at the
Natural History Museum, said the ability to sweat was the more probable
cause. "It's far more likely we lost our fur to control our body heat," he
said.