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IN THIS year’s Feedback Christmas Competition, we asked readers to think of a human trait or behaviour and then provide their own evolutionary explanation for it.

The quantity and quality of the response was heart-warming, making the judging very difficult. Certain themes, such as short sight, bald hair and snoring, were particularly popular – we are now totally convinced that snoring evolved as a way of frightening off animals when our ancestors were asleep in their caves.

Here, after much debate, are five of the winning entries. We will be publishing five more in our next issue (4 January 2003).…

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