Like, when you pet a dog/cat, their skin is sort of looser, they have a scruff of the neck and lots of rolls. But in humans, the skin is tight on the meat, even on the hairy parts like the scalp. Is there a reason for this?
In: Biology
By-and-large loose skin animals don’t sweat. That loose skin allows them to release more heat through their skin. This is because, when mammals are hot, blood will flow outwardly into the skin and outer muscle to help cool the core. Looser skin allows for more surface area to do that.
While we do that as well, we can sweat meaning we need skin with a more taught surface that’s easily exposed to the environment for the sweat to have something good to evaporate from.
The only common exception are porcine mammals which roll in water/mud to cool in a similar way to our sweat. Elephants have loose-ish skin and massive ears they use to keep cool.
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