After shedding body hair, human beings streaked for 6.5438+0 million years. Why did they put on their clothes later?

In the theory of evolution, Darwin believed that all human beings evolved from apes, but through comparison, we will find that there are still great differences between them.

For example, ancient apes, including primates, were covered with a thick layer of hair and did not wear clothes at all. On the other hand, except for some special parts of hair, people nowadays have lost all their hair and put on clothes. So, why did humans lose their body hair during evolution?

At present, the mainstream view on the origin of human beings is that human beings originated from apes (the genetic similarity between them is as high as 98%), which first appeared in eastern and southern Africa and evolved from primitive apes.

About120 thousand years ago, due to crustal movement, a rift valley was formed on the land in eastern Africa, which divided Africa into two parts. In the west of the rift valley, there are still dense and humid trees, while in the east of the Great Rift Valley, due to crustal movement, dense woodlands disappeared and grasslands appeared. The sudden change of geographical environment made most apes extinct, and only a few of them adapted to the new environment and formed a unique evolutionary way to avoid extinction.

About 5 million years ago, these primitive apes evolved into the primitive prototype of human beings-Australopithecus, which is also a real human being. The evolution of human beings originated from forest apes, and then evolved into what it is now through four stages: ape-man, primitive man, homo sapiens and modern man.

Early humans were covered with hair. Like other primates, most early human ancestors were covered with hair, which helped to keep their body temperature. When the weather is very cold, air pockets will form between the hair to lock in the heat.

Moreover, hair can also protect the skin and reduce the damage of ultraviolet rays from the sun. In ancient times, our ancestors went out hunting and often shuttled in the wild. Living conditions are so bad that they can't avoid being exposed to the sun. At this time, the thick body hair can also be regarded as a natural barrier to block the sun and avoid the damage of the sun.

In addition, it can also be used to disguise itself and avoid the bites of other animals. In fact, the body hair is too dense, and it has certain resistance when it is bitten by other animals.

The disappearance of human hair-according to the theory of evolution, human beings originated in Africa, and three quarters of Africa near the equator is in the tropics, so Africa is very hot. If it is covered with a thick layer of body hair, it is obviously not very good for the heat dissipation of the body. Even the animals living there will choose to hunt in the early morning to avoid the hottest moment, because the sun hunting at noon on its head may die because of sweating a lot and its hair is too strong to dissipate heat.

In addition, if there is too much hair, it is difficult to clean it. For example, some animals covered with a thick layer of hair now find that there are many parasites in the hair, which is very harmful to health.

Especially for humans who have been evolving in ancient times, hair removal can effectively control the number of "ectoparasites" such as lice and flies, and it doesn't look beautiful, so humans chose to give up hair in the process of evolution.

Another point is that the existence of these hairs is useless, but it will affect it. For example, they need to run fast when facing natural enemies and catching prey. The existence of these hairs not only blocks the sight, but also increases the resistance during running, so these hairs will begin to gradually degenerate.

However, in the process of human evolution, some parts of hair, such as hair, have a protective effect on the brain; And armpit hair. When we exercise vigorously, we sweat more. The existence of armpit hair can help us sweat under the armpit. ...

Without body hair, keeping warm becomes a big problem, so in the process of human evolution, smart human ancestors learned to use tools and make simple clothes, and made animal skins into simple clothes to keep warm. This is the earliest clothes of human beings. Later, clothes were given more meaning, and now it has become an indispensable "standard configuration" for human beings.

In fact, it is not difficult to find that choosing clothes to keep out the cold is only a choice made by human ancestors for survival. If our ancestors still chose to keep their whole body hair to keep out the cold at that time, then human beings may eventually disappear in the long river of history.

In short, any change in biological characteristics is the result of evolution or natural selection. In order to survive, living things must change their own structure to achieve future development.