Hairy Legs.

Good Lord Man! Looks like CR4 will need a new section - Genetic Engineering!

Since god invented the razor.

Interesting that you should post this question soon after this appears.

I didn't like, say it myself.... but y'no................It was just a weekend kind of question............well, they do, some of them,........I'm not going to suggest Alaska is cold and stockings are thick etc, but well.....I'm sure there is a curious point here. Back in ye olde cave-person days, what advantage did hairy legs give ? More atractive/keeps ya warm ..? Just a simple 'why ?'. I have some furry chums who could assuredly do with some help.

Changes in phenotype through evolution can be either pro survival (fitness at biological niche)or pro reproductive ( fitness at reproduction) or Both.

As the hair itself has nothing to do with mating, it is would be what the pros would call a secondary sexual characteristic if had anything to dod with sexual attractiveness. I believe that this lack of hair is in fact a secondary sexual characteristic today in modern western society.

But I think that it is actually a pro survival attribute (the loss of body hair that is.)

As I recall, Loss of body hair in Humans was considered to be an important stage in ridding us of parasites.

Less Body hair=Fewer parasites= Healthier people (fewer parasite borne diseases)= healthier appearance= appears moreattractive/fit= More likely to mate successfully and often (attractive)= More less hairy young borne into the poulation (transmission of genotypic and phenotypic traits)= a shift in the hairiness of the surviving human population over time.

My apologies to John Burdon Sanderson HAldane, Stephen Jay Gould, Niles Eldridge, and Ernst Myer for my a "crude description" of the "process."

An alternative hypothesis that you might want to consider is that less body hair is associated with meekness. And we all know that "the meek shall inherit the earth."

milo Time for a haircut?

Are you free tommorow night ? we could do a pizza or something.... ?

Just joshing - excellent answer ! My latest absurd thought is 'at what point does fur become defined as hair ?'. I'm sure it's only a matter of finesse.

follicles per inch ^2 (density) i'm sure. But there may also be a structural difference in length and hair types as well.

When i was assisting in the Biology labs at University (The Bio dept. actually paid their assistants!) we would examine goldenrod plants for hairs. The density of the hairs per cm^2 was the determining factor between different species...

TAlk about splitting hairs...

My best job was weighing caterpillar poop on an analytical balance. Then it would be burned in a bomb calorimeter and the temperature rise noted. We were tracking energy flow through the ecosystem. (ecology as science, not politics). We knew what leaves this particular type of caterpillar ate, we knew how much energy the leaves had per gram when calorimetered (sorry for the new verb) and so the delta between the temperature rise of the leaves vs the caterpillar poop was the caterpillar's energy share. I vaguelly remember that at each step of following the energy, each organism basically "lived off the interest."

Thanks for the positive feedback. I know that occasionally my answers seem to come from very uncharted waters...

I was waiting to get a certain cats perceptions about the hairiness of legs in the feline community, but so far , mum's the word.

milo

Milo, you are a diamond ! The most innocent of questions can ellicit superb answers on CR4. I have now begun to contemplate the nature of hairy catapillers, and feel sure it is only a matter of time before Enviroman joins us. Del will assuredly be able to enlighten me about the dividing line between 'hair' and 'fur'. My cup runneth over....

DEl : Dry or wet ?

Hmmm I'll have to think about it.

Ah yes I remember...fur is cuter.

Del

If I'm not mistaken, Hair can be cut and will continue to grow. Fur is shed during seasonal changes to accomodate climate changes.

Fur balls are on the cat, Hair balls are on the good carpet.

That's a good observation about fur being sort of self-regulating. My curiosity deelpens......Rhino 'horn'.....'Wooly' Mammoths.....Somewhere I recall reading that the horn on a Rhino was actually hair, and Mammoths were in the news over something to do with what colour they were........

Yep ; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhinoceros , http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5154892.stm (Hey, Del,,,,they have Beach Mice in California ! You could lounge on the beach with your mouth open and get free snacks )

I can only speak for this caveman, I prefer smooth over hairy legs in a prospective mate, (however, this can change dramatically at closing time).

(however, this can change dramatically at closing time)

I don't know for sure, but I have heard that the women who look like 2's at 10 PM look like 10's at 2 AM! Didn't Micky Gilley have a song about that?

Male hormones stimulate bodily hair growth. That explains why female athletes on steroids tend to develop bodily hair.