• Question: why do we get hairy arms&on our fingers?

    Asked by hughgreer007 to Faye, Martin, Mus, Pete on 24 Apr 2012.
    • Photo: Pete Etchells

      Pete Etchells answered on 24 Apr 2012:

      That’s a great question! We’re not entirely sure, but some people think that we have hair on our arms and legs (and sometimes fingers and toes!) because we’re descended from apes, which have hair all over their body. At some point in our evolutionary past, we lost the need to have such a thick covering of hair, which is why we have much less now. We’re still evolving though, so who knows, in a few thousand years we might have no hair at all!

    • Photo: Faye Didymus

      Faye Didymus answered on 24 Apr 2012:

      Hi hughgreer007! Good question…hairiness can be to do with genetics so if your parents have hairy arms, you may have hairy arms too. It may also be something to do with culture – some experts suggest that Asians and Native Americans are the least hairy people! Males also tend to be more hairy than females and this is because of a hormone called Testosterone that men have in much higher quantities than females.

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