Current Events > Why did humans evolve male pattern baldness?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Shouldn't we require more hair as we get older to stay warm? Old people are always cold.

Evolution-wise, nature believes you have already passed on your genes and birthed the next generation by then, so once that's done, you're not really of much use anymore.

We didn't kill the chrome domes off when it first happened. And now here I am.

Solar_Crimson posted...

Evolution-wise, nature believes you have already passed on your genes and birthed the next generation by then, so once that's done, you're not really of much use anymore.

I went to school with a kid who was bald by graduation.

it never effected fitness. it could even be considered attractive in some cultures. your hair's not hanging in your face, and all the other cave ppl look like cousin-It.

it wasn't considered unattractive in the '70s, so i think it's really just a cultural thing

As far as I am aware, organisms doesn't really evolve traits for any particular reasons...rather, mutations occur in a population and those mutations which are desirable tend to proliferate in a population as time goes on. Baldness isn't really seen as an *undesirable* trait, so it continues to persist, and there you go.

Traits are usually only selection out if they noticeably hinder a species' survival. Most men would have reproduced before mpb kicks in, so it's not a big enough deal that it would have been selected out.