Human evolution and fur

[Erinome]

That's a good question. What 5th said is a good suggestion, and it makes sense, but there's one problem with that. Bare skin actually makes primates more vulnerable to heat. It's bad news for regulating body temperature because naked skin absorbs more energy in the sunlight, and loses more in the cold of night.

There is some speculation that humans went through an aquatic phase, and needed to shed the hair to be faster swimmers, which would also explain the slight webbing of our fingers.

My favorite theory is the parasite theory. Body lice spread so many diseases, such as typhus, and we adapted in order to survive. I think that theory, combined with sexual selection, played a huge role in the loss of human body hair. The women and men with less body hair were viewed as more attractive to the opposite sex, and if I'm not mistaken, that preference holds strong to this day.

What I think is really interesting is that scientists were able to determine when humans started wearing clothes by studying the DNA of all different types of lice. Check it out-

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/lice.html

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We share a common ancestor with modern apes... not lizards.

We share a common ancestor with all living things, including reptiles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triune_brain