why does hair turn grey in older mamals ?
Question:
Answers:
Hair is an interesting biological structure. What we usually think of as 'hair' is really just the part we see. that's the hair shaft, which contains pigment (a chemical that gives color to things). There is also a hair follicle, which is a multi-cellular structure inside the skin of our scalp that creates the hair strand (making it grow), and also is responsible for the pigmentation. Some of the cells in the follicle make the chemical melanin, which is a skin and hair pigment in many species on our planet.
Hair turns grey when the pigment cells in the hair follicle stop making melanin. When this happens due to aging, it's mostly under the control of the genes we inherit. Long periods of constant stress may also contribute, but a big shock won't turn hair grey overnight.
Other Answers:
they lose melanin, that thing which makes skin, eyes and hair dark.
hair color pigments die off.
Well, you have "silverbacks" in gorillas, but I don't know about other species. In the wild most animals don't last long enough to make it to old age anyway.
What Judco says, add genetics. Some people can turn prematurely gray, not to do with aging, and it is genetic.
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