Re: Silverbacks

In article <sehix-10965A.22200521082008@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Steve Hix
<sehix@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes
In article
<546d92bb-9341-4023-9d23-6318c741247f@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"nuny@xxxxxxx" <Alien8752@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Aug 21, 3:18 pm, Howard Brazee <how...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Why do mammals hair turn white as they get older?

Um, snow camouflage for Protectors?*

It's not a certain age - but closer to a certain percentage of their
life-spans.

Several of my wife's uncles and aunts didn't show any gray in their hair
until their early '60s, or even later. (They're asian.)

My hair started going gray when I was 13 or 14. Irish background is most
likely why.

Pretty wide spread for "certain percentage".
An uncle of mine with ancestors in the north of Scotland had jet black
hair until he was quite old. Since my hair started turning grey before
thirty I am quite jealous, except when I remember that my uncle also had
a nervous breakdown, quite possibly because loads of people who came to
him with problems expected him to have the stamina and vigour of a man
twenty years younger.

I suspect that it's just one more thing that never got fixed by natural
selection because something - maybe just skimping on protein or calories
- was more important. My hair was nearly blond as a child, was once a
brown dark enough to pass as black, and is now mostly grey with just
enough dark hair to show that the grey is from age. If evolution was
going to darken anything there, I would expect it to darken the blond
hair of childhood first.
--
A.G.McDowell
.

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