U.K. duo suggest early humans retained fine hair to ward off parasites

(PhysOrg.com) -- Evolutionary biologists have long been puzzled by the question of why human beings have retained body hair. Most agree that changes to the fur that our ancestors sported came about as a means to keep cool in the hot African climate. So why then, didn’t we just lose our body hair completely, instead of having it change from long thick fur, to short and thin hair that makes us look like we’re mostly bald all over anyway, when actually, we still have just as many hairs as we ever did? Isabelle Dean and Michael Siva-Jothy think they’ve figured it out and have published a paper in Biology Letters explaining how they believe it’s all about warding off skin parasites.

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