• Question: What is the evolutionary advantage of pubic hair? If there is none, why is there?

    Asked by to Ed, Anthony on 3 Jan 2019. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Ed Morrison

      Ed Morrison answered on 3 Jan 2019:

      I don’t think we have a solid explanation to be honest. Human hairlessness is quite odd in itself, so why on earth are there a few patches left here and there?

      Possible ideas could be 1: it helps spread scents involved in sexual signalling.
      2: it is a marker of sexual maturity i.e. it just identifies who is ready to reproduce.

      There are also non-evolutionary explanations e.g. it’s a by-product of something else but these are always hard to formulate and test explicitly.

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