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THE end of the year approaches rapidly – in fact at an apparent rate proportional to your age – and people’s thoughts are turning inevitably to the Feedback Christmas competition.

The theme of this year’s competition is evolution. Readers are invited to pick a human behaviour or trait and provide their own evolutionary explanation for why it exists.

For example: Why do men get hairier as they get older?

Answer: It’s all to do with hunting. Men, as we know, evolved to chase down woolly mammoths – that’s why they are athletic and good at throwing spears. But as they aged, their physical prowess waned and they needed other adaptations to keep up with…

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