Eli5: Why do areolas exist ? What is their purpose ?

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I understand the actual knob on a breast for a feeding purpose . Wouldn’t just that be enough ? Why the areola around it especially with a different shade of colour to the rest of the breast ?

In: Biology

22 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

There is a biological function to them, the ‘real’ answer is that it just didn’t matter if they were a different color. Bodies do all kinds of weird stuff just because ‘it doesn’t matter’ from an evolutionary perspective.

It may have even been an asset in evolution as a darker areola made a ‘boob’ look more ‘booby’.

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