Blanchard D Caroline
Pacific Biosciences Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa Honolulu, HI, USA.
Front Behav Neurosci. 2010 Jan 20;3:45. doi: 10.3389/neuro.08.045.2009. eCollection 2010.
The function of manes in lions has been a topic of scientific interest since Darwin (1871) suggested that it provides protection in intraspecific fights. Recent experimental studies on wild lions have emphasized the role of female selection, but analyses of specific attack behaviors and targets, and the social consequences of manelessness for lions living in very hot climates suggest that male manes may indeed mitigate the outcomes of intraspecific male attack and thus serve a permissive function for multi-male + female groups, facilitating protection of prides against take-overs and infanticide by nomadic males. Humans also have unusual structural protections for the head, face and neck, areas that are especially accessible during intraspecies attack, and highly vulnerable to damage. One of these, the beard, consists of coarse hairs that grow indefinitely, but only for males, and only during and following puberty; suggesting that it, like the lion's mane, may serve as protection in intraspecies male fights. Such structural protections may reflect a specific combination of lethal weaponry and social life-style, particularly when these are developed so rapidly that they are not accompanied by the evolution of complex attack-inhibiting social behaviors.
自达尔文（1871年）提出鬃毛在雄狮种内争斗中具有保护作用以来，雄狮鬃毛的功能一直是科学研究的热点。近期对野生狮子的实验研究强调了雌狮选择的作用，但对特定攻击行为和目标的分析，以及对生活在非常炎热气候下的无鬃毛雄狮的社会后果研究表明，雄狮鬃毛确实可能减轻种内雄性攻击的后果，从而对多雄 + 雌狮群体起到一种促进作用，有助于保护狮群免受流浪雄狮的接管和杀婴行为。人类在头部、面部和颈部也有特殊的结构保护，这些部位在种内攻击中特别容易受到攻击，且极易受损。其中之一是胡须，由粗糙的毛发组成，会无限生长，但仅男性有，且只在青春期及之后生长；这表明它与雄狮的鬃毛一样，可能在种内雄性争斗中起到保护作用。这种结构保护可能反映了致命武器装备和社会生活方式的特定组合，特别是当这些发展得非常迅速以至于没有伴随着复杂的抑制攻击的社会行为的进化时。
