Comparative evidence for the independent evolution of hair and sweat gland traits in primates.

ABSTRACT: Humans differ in many respects from other primates, but perhaps no derived human feature is more striking than our naked skin. Long purported to be adaptive, humans' unique external appearance is characterized by changes in both the patterning of hair follicles and eccrine sweat glands, producing decreased hair cover and increased sweat gland density. Despite the conspicuousness of these features and their potential evolutionary importance, there is a lack of clarity regarding how they evolved within the primate lineage. We thus collected and quantified the density of hair follicles and eccrine sweat glands from five regions of the skin in three species of primates: macaque, chimpanzee and human. Although human hair cover is greatly attenuated relative to that of our close relatives, we fi

SUBMITTER: Kamberov YG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6289065 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature