Scientists unravel the mystery of man's hair loss (down to the short and curlies)
Early humans shed their coats of fur as a result of being plagued by disease-carrying parasites, a new theory of evolution claims. The new hypothesis challenges the long-held view that our early ancestors become almost hairless in order to control their body temperatures in the heat of the African savannah.
I've just come up with an alternative hypothesis (which, of course, I can't back it up with any actual evidence)… perhaps human hairlessness is nothing more than a by-product of human neoteny: the prolonged retention of foetal/juvenile features in the adult form (which is one very plausible explanation of how we managed to evolve such large brains). Other people have suggested that hair-loss was a necessary parallel adaptation with the evolution of extra sweat glands—sweating isn't much use if you're covered in hair—but perhaps it was the other way round and enhanced sweating capabilty was a by-product of hair-loss.
Interesting. Don't you just love playing evolutionary Just-So Stories?