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Apes and archaic hominids and pre-sapiens Homo had straight scalp hair with a slight wave, like most primates.
Central Africans and Papuans have very tightly curled scalp hair. Why? This is very anomalous, other people and other mammals have straight hair or are hairless, except a few domesticates (poodles, sheep).
There are many speculative hypotheses to explain, but not parsimoniously.
Here is my new one: Curly hair began to be selected due to living in small dome huts, upright curly hair acted as physical antennae touch sensors to avoid contacting/poking through the dark low (3.5ft.) dome roof of coiled leaves on interwoven branches; this "afro" blocked the sunlight into the eyes while walking/standing/sitting upright that the brow ridge had evolved to protect against in upright leaping lemurs, upright swinging siamangs and great apes, so the ground-dome dwelling human's brow ridges gradually disappeared.
This boney brow ridge had been a physical constraint to brain/skull relative size, though not in absolute size. Homo erectus had a flat heavy skull and large brow ridge and small brain (vs Hs).
Neanderthals had both eyebrow ridge and large somewhat flat brain/skull, which was therefore heavy, compared to modern Hs skull shape.
Aside from a few remaining Asian Pygmies, nobody outside of the African rainforest still weaves and inhabits these small dome huts, so the original naturally selected function of curly hair is lost.
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It would be if you can cite some research sources instead your "hypothesis". Just saying. It is a subject I am trying to get at bottom of. As I told Lioness way back when...straight hair is probably "ancestral"
-------------------- Without data you are just another person with an opinion - Deming Posts: 12143 | From: When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable | Registered: Jun 2007
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Xyyman : "It would be if you can cite some research sources instead your "hypothesis". Just saying. It is a subject I am trying to get at bottom of. As I told Lioness way back when...straight hair is probably "ancestral" "
Straight hair (with a slight wave, since the body is roundish) is certainly ancestral.
Even tightly curled scalp hair is always accompanied by straight eyelashes, no exceptions.
Apes have eyebrow ridges but no eyebrows(sleep in exposed bowl nests), humans have the opposite: eyebrows with no brow ridges (sleep in enclosed buildings/huts).
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regarding the hairy back & IQ proposed link:
fbfb @ AAT: "The study was from Alias 1995 and 1996 on hirsute connection. Another study 45% of found medical students had hairy backs but only 10% of all men.
But the real IQ/ Genetic correlation is by the Sikela lab at University of Denver Medical school. Many papers and even a patent on duf1220 and intelligence. Humans have between 270 and 310 duf1220 genes in 6 primary spectrums. One of those is the con2 spectrum and if you have under 20 duf1220 you will have an IQ under 70 or microcephally. If you have over 30... IQ is likely over 140 and you could have autism or microcephally.
Neanderthal had 350 duf1220, a larger brain and was much smarter than us, and he had to be!! Homo survived 2 million winters, without clothes or fire throughout Eurasia since sign first appears in the Renzi cave in China 2.5 mya. Wild homo was exclusively monogamous (labuda 2010) and cross aquatic barriers, thousands of not 10's of millions of times to Java, Germany, Italy, Sima, Israel, North East Africa.
Interestingly, the common chimp and bonobo have been separated for a similar period by a SINGLE river. Why? Because chimps have none of the twelve key adaptations which allow us to swim.
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