[sci.bio] human "hairlessness"

rising@zoo.toronto.edu (Jim Rising) (11/07/90)

It was suggested that the hairlessless of humans represented
the retention of a fetal condition in adults.  It is my under-
standing that fetal humans are covered with hair (lanugo) which
is often (generally?) lost before birth.  Does this fit into this
discussion?  Does toothlessness in baleen
whales represent the retention of a fetal characteristic (they
have teeth as fetuses)?
-- 
Name:     Jim Rising
Mail:     Dept. Zoology, Univ. Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada    M5S 1A1
UUCP:     uunet!attcan!utzoo!rising 
BITNET:   rising@zoo.utoronto.ca