Our extraordinary brains set us apart from all other animals on the planet. We've also invented clothing for animals, who, truth be told, don't always enjoy getting dressed up. The development of human clothing has even influenced the evolution of other species - body lice ( Pediculus humanus humanus), unlike all other kinds, cling to clothing, not hair.
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Chimpanzees have been documented adorning themselves with items - one wild chimp wore a knotted skin "necklace" made from the leftovers of a slain red colobus monkey, a 1998 report found (opens in new tab), while a captive chimp in Zambia (opens in new tab) started wearing grass "earrings" that she had draped over her ears, a fashion trend that spread to her fellow chimps - but these adornments didn't protect or insulate the chimps from the elements like human clothes do. Humans may be called "naked apes," but most of us wear clothing, a characteristic that makes us unique in the animal kingdom. (Image credit: Vladimir Vladimirov via Getty Images) Clothing has enabled humans to survive in colder conditions. ClothingĪ fashion designer creating clothing. It's a good thing we have miniaturized hair it makes cooling off a breeze.įun fact about hair: Even though we don't seem to have much, it apparently helps us detect parasites, according to a 2011 study in the journal Biology Letters (opens in new tab). If humans were covered with thick hair, like apes are, sweat would coat the hair, which would make it harder for the sweat to evaporate, which is how sweat cools us off. These adaptations made it easier for Homo to cool off while running long distances because of the exceptional ability to sweat a lot.
So, why are humans covered with short, nearly invisible hair? About 2 million years ago, an adaptation caused members of the genus Homo to miniaturize body hair, while another adaptation increased the number of eccrine sweat glands, which most mammals have only on their palms and the soles of their feet, Live Science previously reported. It's just that humans often have thinner, shorter, lighter hairs on most of our bodies than most primates do, so it's easy to think of us as "naked." Surprisingly, however, a square inch of human skin, on average, possesses as many hair-producing follicles as a chimpanzee's ( Pan troglodytes) skin, a 2018 study in the Journal of Human Evolution (opens in new tab) found. We look naked compared with our hairier ape cousins. (Image credit: RollingEarth via Getty Images) Humans appear to have less hair than other apes. A female chimp receiving a piggy-back from her handler.