Men with longer hair and beards may have smaller testicles than those who struggle to grow facial hair, a study claims.
It found that humans, and more than one hundred other primates, face an evolutionary dilemma when it comes to their genitals.
Teams from the University of Western Australia, who carried out the research, say a male ‘can be well-adorned or well-endowed, but it’s hard to be both’.
Animals can either invest energy attracting females with impressive manes and beards or spend their energy growing larger gonads.
This means hairy human men with a bushy beard and long hair are likely to have smaller testes than
their follicly challenged brethren.
For the rest of the world’s primates, this trade-off comes in the shape of having either the bright buttocks of a baboon or the plain features and large testes of plainer primates.
Primatologist and study co-author Dr Cyril Grueter, from the University of Western Australia, said testicle size varies enormously and is linked to a male’s appearance.
‘Some [primate] species sport flamboyant accoutrements such as beards, manes, capes and cheek flanges, and various shades of colour in their faces and fur,’ he said.
‘Others are pretty drab and look more like your Mr Average.
‘This finding clearly shows that you can be well-adorned or well-endowed, but it’s hard to be both.’
The finding comes from a study that looked at testicle size of more than 100 primate species and found gonads vary dramatically depending on the animals.
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