Home » MOCA » Domains » Development

Lanugo Hair

Certainty Style Key
Hover over keys for definitions:
True   Likely   Speculative
What is MOCA?
MOCA FAQ...
Human Uniqueness Compared to "Great Apes": 
Likely Difference
MOCA Domain: 
Development
MOCA Topic Authors: 
MOCA Topic Author

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?

Related MOCA Topics
Related Topics:
TitleCertainty
Hair VibrissaeNone
HairlessnessNone
Timing

Timing of Appearance of the Difference in the Hominin Lineage.

For this entry assume that

  • the common ancestor of humans and old world monkeys was 25000 thousand (25 million) years ago
  • the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees was 6000 thousand (6 million) years ago
  • the emergence of the genus Homo was 2000 thousand (2 million) years ago
  • the common ancestor of modern humans was 100 thousand years ago

 

Definite Appearance: 
100 Thousand Years