ICH WERDE DICH GRUENE MACHEN!

"Human skin appears to be relatively hairless in comparison to other primates; however, most humans have a larger number of hairs on their body than a chimpanzee. The main difference is that human hairs are shorter, finer, and less coloured then the average chimpanzee's, thus rendering them harder to see."

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_sapiens

I dont know if thats comparing equal surface area.

Many biologists feel that the mechanism for human evolution from primate ancestors was Neoteny, an extension of the developmental phase, so less hair sorta makes sense.

Isn't the hair on the arms, legs, etc. are vestigial features? I mean, do they serve any purpose (I don't think "goosebumps" help) other than things left over from evolution?

I think the human race went into a bottle neck at some point. Perhaps there were hairless mutants? And don't start talking about nuke-mutant-men. I mean the real kind.

the general idea is that all humans are juvenile primates, and we simply reach sexual maturity earlier and stop developing earlier. there's a whole branch of science dedicated to studying evolution through developmental changes (like changing antennae into legs in the case of some mutant fruit flies we looked at), and this is one of the simpler developmental changes (called neoteny).

you're asking though how it is that hairless primates would be selected for by natural selection. well, they don't have to be selected for, they just have to not be selected against. as long as there was no detriment to losing fur, the mutant primate would be just fine. assuming homo sapiens evolved in africa, this is entirely plausible.

I AM JUVENILE PRIMATE

Anyway, we probably lost fur 'cause we didn't need it. Coming from Africa, we'd be overheating should we be covered with free insulation. Or nocturnal, but some of us have a sufficiently botched circadian rhythm to give the same effect.

That, and it'd clog something awful every time you tried to shower. The plug hole would never be safe.

[QUOTE=- Tony -]:(

Anyway, we probably lost fur 'cause we didn't need it. Coming from Africa, we'd be overheating should we be covered with free insulation. Or nocturnal, but some of us have a sufficiently botched circadian rhythm to give the same effect.[/QUOTE]
The problem I see with these ideas is that there are other, extremely furry creatures in Africa, and it helps them, not hurt them.

Baleen whales dont have fur, they live in artic conditions.

erm, yeh, i suck at debate

if(getThingFlags(source) & 0x8){
  do her}
elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
  do other babe}
else{
  do a dude}

And we have fat deposits in similar regions that whales do.

If you're wondering, whales rely on blubber for insulation and megathermy (large body with low surface area reduces the amount of heat loss)