Why Did Humans Start Wearing Clothes? The Answer Is in Lice

Why Are Humans the Only Animals That Wear Clothes? Every other animal gets through the cold with fur, feathers or fat. Humans are the only ones who dress. So when did we start, and why? Clothes rot away and almost never survive, so scientists had to find the answer in stranger places: the DNA of lice, 120,000-year-old bone tools, a 50,000-year-old needle and 30,000-year-old dyed threads. Every source used in this video is listed below. RESEARCH & SOURCES ▸ Lice and the origin of clothing: Toups, Kitchen, Light & Reed, "Origin of Clothing Lice Indicates Early Clothing Use by Anatomically Modern Humans in Africa", Molecular Biology and Evolution (2011). Clothing lice split from head lice at least 83,000 and possibly 170,000 years ago. ▸ Losing our body hair: the same study notes genetic evidence that humans lost most body hair by about 1.2 million years ago, long before clothes. ▸ Earliest clothing tools: Hallett et al., "A worked bone assemblage from 120,000–90,000 year old deposits at Contrebandiers Cave, Atlantic Coast, Morocco", iScience (2021). Bone tools for working hides, plus carnivore bones with skinning marks. ▸ Oldest known needle with an eye: a roughly 50,000-year-old bird-bone needle from Denisova Cave, Siberia (Archaeology magazine, 2016). ▸ Oldest dyed fibres: Kvavadze et al., "30,000-Year-Old Wild Flax Fibers", Science (2009). Spun, knotted and dyed flax from Dzudzuana Cave, Georgia. PEOPLE & SITES IN THIS VIDEO ▸ David Reed: Florida Museum of Natural History scientist whose team used lice DNA to date the first clothes. ▸ Contrebandiers Cave: a cave on Morocco's Atlantic coast where Homo sapiens worked hides with bone tools 120,000 to 90,000 years ago. ▸ Denisova Cave: a Siberian cave used by Denisovans, Neanderthals and modern humans, home of the oldest known eyed needle. ▸ Dzudzuana Cave: a cave in the Caucasus foothills of Georgia where the oldest dyed flax fibres were found. Illustrations and narration: Inklore #ancienthumans #prehistory #clothinghistory #humanevolution #stoneage #iceage #archaeology #history #historyfacts #lice #denisovans #fashionhistory #stickman #animation #inklore