# Why do humans have no neck armor? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 20, 2010, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-have-no-neck-armor/540155 "2010-05-20T18:05:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-have-no-neck-armor/540155/21 "2010-05-20T21:27:41Z")
To the point - it is interesting to note that whether or not armor is useful _at all_, even for soldiers actually engaged in battle, tends to vary over time and place, and depend on the role of the soldier at issue - armor after all, while undeniably providing protection, tends to be at least somewhat mobility- and vision-hampering. If some _soldiers_ are willing to rationally discard armor because even in battle (when wounding is highly probable) the benefits of going without outweigh the risks … ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-have-no-neck-armor/540155/22 "2010-05-20T22:39:18Z")
And on the ‘not worth it’ side of the ledger, there’s the idea that given the general human body plan, the throat is the easiest to defend part of the body (eyes are able to see anything coming at the throat, hands are positioned to fend off anything coming at the throat, and in the extreme a fetal position with the head tucked covers the throat). So in most close-range fights if something is able to get pointy things on your throat, it’s probably pretty much won the fight – throat armor might delay it for a couple seconds, but it will just move on to the eyes, hands, femoral artery, etc. Kind of like why there aren’t rifles stored on the bridge of a battleship – if you have a chance to use them, you’ve already lost. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-have-no-neck-armor/540155/23 "2010-05-20T23:50:49Z")
> [@The\_Great\_Philosopher](#): > > Making one of these, “why have we evolved this way?” threads is always really boring because a bunch of people come in and say the same real clever response about how ‘evolution doesn’t have a purpose!’. > Yes, yes, very clever. The point of the thread is, why does a lack of neck armor allow us to survive? Why aren’t we out-competed by genetic mutants with some serious neck armor? Answering “because we aren’t” is not helpful. > > I would speculate that the reason humans, dogs, sheep, cows and a whole bunch of other mammals don’t have any neck protection is because it would slow down their ability to move their head and see their surroundings, which would be more likely to be fatal than not having neck protection once you’re attacked. It is clever. Mocking it doesn’t make it less clever. Fighting ignorance, dude. Sometimes, ya gotta repeat yourself (re: purpose, etc). To address your wording: Sometimes, there is no ‘why’ either. We don’t lack things because they would have negative consequences. \*\* Sometimes we just lack them. Period.\*\* ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2010, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-have-no-neck-armor/540155/24 "2010-05-21T00:48:00Z")
Wait…Who says the neck isn’t protected? The spinal cord is there…inside the bones that make up your cervical spine. The jugular and carotid veins are there, but inside thick layers of fascia and muscle (plus, they’re so numerous that cutting just one isn’t really the instant death sentence Hollywood makes it out to be; the others will keep the important things oxygenated as long as you can get pressure on the cut to hold the blood in.) The trachea is made of rings of really tough cartilage that are hard to cut through even with a sharp scalpel, and even if it’s cut, you can still suck air in through the hole. For a body feature as wonderfully flexible in nearly every direction as the neck is, it’s astoundingly \*well \*protected, iffen you ask me. ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2010, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-have-no-neck-armor/540155/25 "2010-05-21T05:28:38Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > There are other solutions possible, and even internal genitalia are possible – witness whales, manatees, and other aquatic mammals. Course for those aquatic dudes, they’ve got the opposite issue- it’s damn cold out there in the ocean and they want to keep their vital bits warm! ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2010, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-have-no-neck-armor/540155/26 "2010-05-21T06:03:19Z")
What WhyNot said… I’ve taken some hits to the back of the neck that I wouldn’t want directed at my eyes or nuts. I’m not convinced that the mass of tendons, muscles and pipes do not constitute armor. Put another way, baseball hitters supplement their skulls with additional protection: they don’t add gear to the side of their neck, do they? Sport fans can discuss football padding and catcher’s helmets here. Furthermore, I doubt whether hand-to-hand combatants necessarily prefer the neck to other targets: methinks there are superior ones for disabling an opponent. Then again, cougars probably target the neck with good reason. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2010, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-have-no-neck-armor/540155/27 "2010-05-21T07:25:38Z")
> [@ToeJam](#): > > Course for those aquatic dudes, they’ve got the opposite issue- it’s damn cold out there in the ocean and they want to keep their vital bits warm! Looking at [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testicle#External_testes), they apparently also have to keep them cool, and have a specialized cooling system do do so. The same article also mentions a number of mammals with internal testicles, and points out that external testicles are in fact the “basal condition” for mammals; most kinds have internal testicles. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2010, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-have-no-neck-armor/540155/28 "2010-05-21T07:50:34Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > When in doubt: Chicks dug it. I’m gonna quote that. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2010, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-have-no-neck-armor/540155/29 "2010-05-21T09:48:21Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Name another animal that has a neck and also neck armor. [Pangolins](http://www.jonmarchant.clara.net/misc/pangolin.gif), upper side only. ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2010, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-have-no-neck-armor/540155/30 "2010-05-21T10:03:30Z")
Thanks, DT, Ignorance fought. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2010, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-have-no-neck-armor/540155/31 "2010-05-21T20:16:41Z")
> [@naita](#): > > I’m gonna quote that. Haha, thanks. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2010, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-have-no-neck-armor/540155/32 "2010-05-21T20:27:30Z")
> [@Agent\_Foxtrot](#): > > By contrast, the neck is soft, fleshy, exposed, and an easy target with pretty much 100% kill certainty. Why is the neck unprotected by such defenses? Your jugular artery, trachea, and spinal cord are right there for the taking. Shrugging provides a slight measure of defense, but that defense is active, not passive. > > Some of _Homo sapiens_’ features are genetic mistakes, such as knee joints that aren’t designed for upright walking or exposed humeral nerves. Is this one of those cases? Sounds to me like a deadly error. We appear to populate the world with over 6 billion people. I’d suggest it’s clearly _not_ a deadly error. We clearly don’t need to armor our necks, or we would have. ---
**Author:** ![sunstone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunstone/32/3372_2.png) [@sunstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunstone)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2010, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-have-no-neck-armor/540155/33 "2010-05-21T23:30:40Z")
I have to add armadillos to Tamerlanes’s contribution of Pangolins. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2010, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-have-no-neck-armor/540155/34 "2010-05-21T23:54:23Z")
> [@The\_Great\_Philosopher](#): > > Making one of these, “why have we evolved this way?” threads is always really boring because a bunch of people come in and say the same real clever response about how ‘evolution doesn’t have a purpose!’. > > Yes, yes, very clever. The point of the thread is, why does a lack of neck armor allow us to survive? Why aren’t we out-competed by genetic mutants with some serious neck armor? Answering “because we aren’t” is not helpful. > > I would speculate that the reason humans, dogs, sheep, cows and a whole bunch of other mammals don’t have any neck protection is because it would slow down their ability to move their head and see their surroundings, which would be more likely to be fatal than not having neck protection once you’re attacked. Given that this forum is for factual answers to questions, I’m not sure why you are mocking attempts to give factual answers while engaging in speculation. > [@Der Trihs](#): > > Looking at Wikipedia, they apparently also have to keep them cool, and have a specialized cooling system do do so. The same article also mentions a number of mammals with internal testicles, and points out that external testicles are in fact the “basal condition” for mammals; most kinds have internal testicles. The article states that internal testicles is the “basal” condition. “Basal” means that the earliest members of that group had that feature. I’m not seeing where it says that most “kinds” have internal testicles, although I don’t really know what you mean by the term “kinds”-- “species”? If so, I seriously doubt it, considering that 70% of mammalian species are either rodents, bats or shrew/mole-like creatures. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-have-no-neck-armor/540155/35 "2010-05-22T00:09:23Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > Because the lack of neck armor isn’t a problem that tends to kill people off before they can reproduce. That’s one of the main ways that evolution works - the “fitter” individuals survive to have lots of children to pass on the helpful traits and the less fit have fewer children or none at all, either because they die before reaching fertile age or they can’t find a willing partner. This is one of the reasons why Alzheimer’s Disease won’t ever be evolved against (absent a massive forced Eugenics campaign with the ability to predict Alzheimer’s) , since Alzheimer’s Disease doesn’t normally strike or even become reasonably detectable until a person is beyond normal reproductive age and they have had as many children as they are ever going to have. It’s possible that humans never developed a significant neck armor mutation that provided any sort of material advantage that could be naturally selected (e.g. a mutation that would give an edge in combat, fall survival, etc.). If there are no instances of the mutation, any fraction or multiple of zero is zero. It’s also possible that humans did at one time have a neck armor mutation, but the downsides/side effects were so bad (perhaps the armor was so heavy it broke your spine by age 10) that it was difficult for children with the mutation to achieve parenthood, and so the trait was evolved against. ---
**Author:** ![EdwardLost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@EdwardLost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdwardLost)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-have-no-neck-armor/540155/36 "2010-05-22T00:36:25Z")
I agree with the arguments for reduced neck mobility. I also agree that anything able to kill us with a bite to the neck would be able us kill us if even if we did have neck armor. These are surely sufficient answers. But I’ll toss out another idea: There’s a hypothesis that humans evolved as run-in-the-heat specialists. Neck armor would slow us down and reduce our ability to shed heat. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-have-no-neck-armor/540155/37 "2010-05-22T01:01:03Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > [Pangolins](http://www.jonmarchant.clara.net/misc/pangolin.gif), upper side only. It looks like an artichoke with legs. Awesome. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-have-no-neck-armor/540155/38 "2010-05-22T02:20:36Z")
OK. Let’s revisit the OP and break it down: > [@Agent\_Foxtrot](#): > > The brain is encased within a hard bone skull whose shape is designed to minimize the impact of blows. The ribcage does a relatively good job of providing protection to the internal organs. > > By contrast, the neck is soft, fleshy, exposed, and an easy target with pretty much 100% kill certainty. The “neck” does not have a 100% kill certainty or anything close to it. Do you mean the Spinal Cord-- the thing protected by the vertebrae. The vertebrae is like the rib cage is like the skull. And note that the rib cage does not protect much more than the heart and lungs. And even at that, it’s full of holes. > [@](#): > > Why is the neck unprotected by such defenses? See above > [@](#): > > Your jugular artery, trachea, and spinal cord are right there for the taking. The spinal cord is not “right there”. It’s protected by a bony enclosure. The jugular is like the femur and other major arteries. > [@](#): > > Shrugging provides a slight measure of defense, but that defense is active, not passive. Not really sure what this means. > [@](#): > > Some of _Homo sapiens_’ features are genetic mistakes, such as knee joints that aren’t designed for upright walking or exposed humeral nerves. Is this one of those cases? All of our traits started out as “mistakes” in the sense that mutations are errors in copying the genetic code. > [@](#): > > Sounds to me like a deadly error. And yet it hasn’t proven to be so. Just looking at primates, none has neck armor. And yet\* H. sapiens\* has the largest number of members than any primate (~7 billion), or any large mammal, for that matter. In what sense could that be deemed “deadly”? ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-have-no-neck-armor/540155/39 "2010-05-22T04:21:10Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > There are other solutions possible, and even internal genitalia are possible – witness whales, manatees, and other aquatic mammals. And birds, which unlike reptiles and fish are also warm-blooded creatures. They have all their boy parts on the inside, and scientists say their testes simply endure their [core body temperatures](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testicle#Evolution). ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-have-no-neck-armor/540155/40 "2010-05-22T05:05:20Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > And on the ‘not worth it’ side of the ledger, there’s the idea that given the general human body plan, the throat is the easiest to defend part of the body Tell that to Rambo’s victims. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-have-no-neck-armor/540155.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-humans-have-no-neck-armor/540155.md?page=3)