I'm not sure this question even makes sense

[james_davis_nicoll]

But why are humans so drab compared to, say, birds? Is it just that mammals in general have lousy color vision (although ours is better than average) and that we're descended from animals that wouldn't have been able to make use of a wide variety of fur colors or is it that there's something about fur and hair that inherently limits its palette?

I will admit this ranks lower on my "inherent human features that require fixing" than the vitamin C thing, particularly given the existance of non-toxic dyes.

Comments

Re: You had it right the first time

[carloshasanax.livejournal.com]

One possible way to get it delinked from the sex chromosomes would be a gene duplication of the blue photopigment gene on chromosome 7 -- uncommon, but there are almost seven billion people on the planet -- followed by a mutation in the duplication.

Genomes are v. interesting.