Reading the posts on Avatar got me thinking about how improbably human-like Hollywood aliens are portrayed. Of course, I understand this is for budgetary and “emotional connection” reasons. There may even be some logic behind assuming that intelligent aliens would be upright, hands-free creatures - but these aliens usually also share with humans the most ridiculous feature we possess: a mane of super-long hair right on the crowns of our heads. A lot of mammals have weird, non-functional display features, but I can’t think of any others with head-manes. Are there any?
Do you mean like the horse and lion?
I thought certain monkeys had manes.
I’m such a nut … my first thought was “zebra,” and my second was colobus monkey.
There are also these guys, but they may be cheating because they have been deliberately bred for their appearance. Then again, who’s to say aliens aren’t?
Barry Gibb is a mammal, isn’t he? Right?
And Peter Frampton used to have a really impressive mane.
I would call those neck manes. The colobus monkeys seem to have back manes. I was trying to think of an animal with a mane coming straight out of the top of the head, like in humans, Na’vi, Barry Gibb, and Peter Frampton.
Certain tamarin monkeys, like the Cottontop, have very “mane”-like hair on their heads.
Mmmm, for “neck mane” I’ll reluctantly give you the horse but this S.O.B. has got a head mane.
That it continues down his neck just shows what a bad-ass head mane it is.
Okay, I’ll grant the lack of “head-manes,” but with the stipulation that very few other mammals are obligatory bipeds who would benefit from having a built-in parasol.
Do non-mammals count? The crests of cardinals, jays, and some other birds are rather mane-like.
And male collies have manes, though those are more on the neck than the head. Which makes Lassie particularly ridiculous: Not only did they give a male dog a female name, but they chose the one breed of dog where it’d be obvious at a glance.
Why is it ridiculous? Makes perfect sense as insulation to me. Humanoid aliens would presumably benefit from that too.
Also, warthogs
Cheetah cubs have manes, but lose them as they mature:
http://www.naturegraphics.net/bk335w%20Cheetah%20cubs.jpg
http://schools-wikipedia.org/images/726/72696.jpg
http://itn.co.uk/story1049ddd357dadb79b5dd0e9690eecf7c.jpg
http://www.arkive.org/media/36625EE3-E8E9-44C9-B1F4-0420563677A1/Presentation.Large/ large-Cheetah-cub.jpg
Those pictures look more like “fuzzy all over” than specifically on the heads.
It was just an excuse to post pictures of cheetah cubs. 
Well, yes, that… but the juvenile mane is on the back of the head and down the spine, and is of a different color from the rest of their coat. They’re not nearly as fuzzy elsewhere.
Besides the Cotton-top, the Golden-headed Tamarin and Golden Lion Tamarin have manes. So does the Gelada Baboon.
Also the Francois Langur and Cat Ba Langur.
walruses?