Lanugo Hair

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Human Uniqueness Relative to "Great Apes":

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Lanugo Hair is a fine, soft wooly kind of hair that grows all over the human fetus and is typically shed just before birth and replaced afterwards by regular hair. Interestingly, lanugo hair is also found on some other new-born mammals such as seals and elephants, which like humans, do not have a lot of body hair as adults. Lanugo hair can also reappear in the uniquely human condition of serious anorexia nervosa. In contrast, great apes are born with a considerable amount of regular hair. Do great apes have lanugo hair in an earlier stage of embryogenesis?

Timing

Timing of Appearance of the Difference in the Hominin Lineage.

For this entry assume that

the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees was 6000K years ago
the emergence of the genus Homo was 2000K years ago
the common ancestor of modern humans was 100K years ago
the common ancestor of humans and old world monkeys was 25000K years ago

Definite Appearance:

100K Years

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