Modern humans started wearing clothing about 170,000 years ago, 70,000 years before they moved into colder climates and higher latitudes, according to a US researcher。

　　To find out when modern human began to put dresses on, David Reed, associate curator of mammals at the Florida Museum of Natural History, used DNA sequencing to calculate when clothing lice first began to diverge genetically from human head lice。

　　"We wanted to find another method for pinpointing when humans might have first started wearing clothing," Reed said. "Because they are so well adapted to clothing, we know that body lice or clothing lice almost certainly didn't exist until clothing came about in humans."

　　The study suggests humans lost body hair about 1 million years ago while they started to wear clothes 170,000 years ago, meaning humans spent a considerable amount of time without body hair and without clothing, Reed added。

　　据合众国际社7日报道，一名美国研究人员称，人类穿衣服始于17万年前，比人类迁移到气候更冷、纬度更高地区的时间早了7万年。

　　为了确定人类何时开始穿衣服，佛罗里达自然历史博物馆研究哺乳动物的副馆长戴维•里德利用脱氧核糖核酸序列来计算衣服上的虱子从何时起开始与人类头上的虱子出现基因差异。

　　“我们想要找到另一种方法，以确定人类可能从何时开始穿衣服，”里德说。“因为他们很好地适应了衣服，所以我们知道身体上的虱子或衣服上的虱子在人类穿上衣服之前几乎肯定不存在。”

　　里德还称，研究显示人类在大约100万年前脱去了体毛，而在17万年前才开始穿衣服，这意味着人类在相当长的一段时间里既无体毛也不穿衣服。