It seems that we do not understand the concept of "complete adaptation" in the same way. I'm not talking about an impossible "perfect" adaptation. I was comparing partial/limited adaptation such as humans and long-term sub-zero cold, and complete/advanced adaptation such as snow foxes and the Arctic.
Even arctic foxes have other adaptations other than fur. They have a generally rounded body shape to minimize the escape of body heat, and, most importantly, they have to eat vast amounts of food in the autumn so as to gain c.50% extra bodyweight and so survive the winter. Polar bears practise an odd form of "walking hibernation" in order to deal with the fact that winter involves a reduction in the amount of prey, and so on and on. My point was that fur is merely one type of adaptation to cold and many other(non-technological) methods can have allowed ancient hominids to adapt to the cold without ever needing to grow fur or wear artificial furs.
That's true.
Being able to live naked 24/7 in Arctic climes isn't.
Incorrect. I have already shown a myriad ways in which humans (or other animals) can easily survive in arctic climates without needing to wear furs or use any other technological aids such as fire.
Come to think of it, why are Germanic people so comparatively tall then, if being smaller is linked to cold adaptation? The answer: artificial adaptation, aka clothes, fire, grease, large quantity of stored food etc...
You are falsely assuming that Germanic people originally evolved in a cold environment. In actual fact, East Asians are far better adapted to the cold, having smaller bodies and other cold-adapted characteristics. I recall that Caucasoids have been claimed to have originated in temperate forests, but, strictly speaking, no one is sure of their origins at all.
Name one bare hibernating mammal.
What does that prove, per se?Nothing really. I mean, many small mammals still need to hibernate or go into torpor in winter despite having fur, since the small amount of thin fur they can have is nowhere near enough to allow them to survive the winter:-
http://www.discoverwildlife.com/british-wildlife/how-tell-torpor-hibernationYes, fur is the nec-plus-ultra of land mammal cold protection, when associated with other characteristics such as higher-metabolism etc..
Obviously wrong, when other methods such as feathers are at least as good.
One must use logic and realize that if hominids could (possibly) master fire 500.000 years ago, they could've carved out a fur cape with a sharp silex a lot earlier. Such claims should not be trusted, and we cannot let ourselves pick which loose conclusion from which often inaccurate science fits our views best. Not a valid argument.
No, yours is not a valid argument at all. You make a vague supposition that fire (for warmth) was invented c.500,000 years ago. In actual fact, other than kooks like Wrangham(Wrongham), the date for the invention of fire for warmth is set at around c.400,000 years ago, with the use of fire for cooking occurring c.250,000 to 300,000 years ago.So, you see, it makes no sense to assume that something happened much earlier without any evidence , especially when the contrary evidence is solid and shows that clothing only got started being used from c. 83,000 to 170,000 years ago or so:-
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/lice-evolution-tracks-the-invention-of-clothes-123034488/?no-istYou see, the scientists did not simply assume that the use of animal hides had to mean clothing, they actually checked the evolution of head-lice and body-lice to see when they diverged from their former evolution to become adapted to humans. So, the notion of clothing being invented half a million years or more earlier, is clearly invalid.
All miniature mammals with fur or feathers, which work in a very similar way. Aren't winter covers and snow vests regularly stuffed with plumes?
Some of these animals clearly rely less on furs/feather and more on other practices such as huddling or reducing blood-flow to the extremities etc.etc.