Why Humans and Their Fur Parted Ways. This New York Times article speculates why, unlike the chimps and apes, we have evolved to be relatively hairless. The most "likely" theory cited is that humans have lost fur to combat parasites. I think determining when humans have lost their fur by sequencing parasite DNA is pretty ingenious. But on another note, all of this raises another question. If selection favored humans with less hair (that is, humans with less hair were considered more fit and attractive), then would people argue that leg shaving or beard shaving is not really a social pressure but something biological?
