The most common theory of human phylogenesis suggests that world evolved from an emulator - similar ancestor . But what if we develop from something that was a fiddling more like a seal or dolphin ? Over the twelvemonth , a fistful of evolutionary biologists have proffered the uncanny theory that we evolve from “ aquatic aper ” who lived in the piddle for a few hundred thousand years . Let ’s take a dive into one of the defective ideas in the history of evolutionary theory .
Tucked away among the many theories on the quirks of development is the accurately - titled Aquatic Ape theory . Although it is what has to be one of the best B - Movie rubric of all time , the aquatic aper theory has not derive much popularity over since its inception . Why do its proponents believe that our ancestors lived more like porpoises than Pan troglodytes ?
Humans would n’t be the first mammals to wade back into the body of water when the going got sturdy on nation . Seventy million geezerhood ago giant four - foot up creatures shuffled back into the weewee , Their hind quarters turned into tails and they became whales . Fifty million years ago , bounteous elephant - like creatures wad in . Their front legs became flippers and they became manatees . Twenty - five to thirty million years ago bear - like animals clamber down the banking concern into the ocean . Their limbs got modified and now they skin in and out of the water as seals and ocean lions . We were due for a dip .

And there are plenty of animals on Din Land that skip in and out of the water supply . Beavers , hippopotamuses , water shrewmouse , and many other kinds of mammals go their lives half - in , half - out of the water . If we had an aquatic ascendant , it would not be an anomalousness , but part of a well - established model followed , to many different arcdegree , by many other mammals in evolutionary chronicle .
Why Would Anyone Think We Went Aquatic ?
Just because mammal can adjust to water does n’t mean that hoi polloi really did . Adding a sojourn in the water seems to needlessly complicate human evolution . What possible evidence is there for humans drop time in the water supply ? One of the master arguments for the theory is the baffle fact of human hairlessness . ( Or rather – hair thinness . We have the same amount of tomentum as imitator . Ours is just so slight and curt that it does n’t count . ) Primates tend to have pilus , especially the more man - similar imitator . Why did world lose their coat ? Each argument – sponger , neoteny , and sexual attractiveness – has its own down side . If sponge were the culprit , why did only humans slough their fur . Chimps and bonobo , so much like humans and subsist in the same surround , would surely have benefit from less parasites as well . If neoteny – the holding of juvenile characteristics into maturity – is the reason , why would human fetuses grow hair and then shed it ? And although existent characteristics are exaggerate by chastity of sexual selection over generations , new characteristic are seldom establish in this way .

Take a dip in the water , though , and it ’s prosperous to see why humans may have lose their hair . mahimahi and heavyweight have lose theirs to increase their streamlined silhouette and move through the water easier . Hippos elephants , and fuzz , all well - known wallowers in swim holes have lost their fuzz as well . These might have been haired at one meter , but spending a few generations with sop fur would have selected the hair off of them quickly . As long as the hair does n’t provide insulant against the pee itself – which might not be a great thing in a red-hot clime – it makes sentiency to get rid of it . It ’s also theorized that humans can grow the haircloth on their head long because mothers , bundle in pee , can lactate their child , who is cling to their hair .
In conjunction with the loss of hair is the gain of fat . Specifically , rich that runs all up and down the body , under the cutis . While plenty of country animals can arise rich , they generally store their fatty tissue around their stomach . The rest of the trunk stays as a incessant level of fat . world have cheek and second joint and even ankles that get fatter as they gain weight unit . life scientist have argued that the passing of hair necessitated the profit of subcutaneous fat , but then why the going of hair in the first place ? Why drop off a necessary and functional adaptation in the first shoes – if the only way to make up for it is to compensate with something else ?
Bipedalism is also a unequaled feature of humans among hierarch , but interpretable if early human beings live a significant portion of their aliveness in the water system . When the few monkey that do wade into the water system go , they often wade in up to their waist . This leaves the head above urine . The more well-off an former human would be with bipedal motion , the farther into the water he or she could guess . And when aquatic creature float , the spot is the same as standing upright , with the forefront lined up with feet . It ’s just not as efficient to dog - paddle .

The move to water has been used , in part , to excuse other disparate quirks . Our lack of powerful noses might be because it ’s hard to follow a scent track in the water . The ability of baby to swim , or naturally hold their breath , so long as they are introduced to the piddle early indicate that maybe childbirth was done at ocean . It ’s even retrieve that the deprivation of aroma cues , and the loss of dependable line of business of sight , might have caused humans to make auditory sensation that could carry both underwater and above the strait of the waves . After all , whales sing and dolphins call each other by name . And for those who are sentimental , there ’s the fact that humans are the only primate that sheds split , while ocean birds and seal of approval are known to cry at both physical and worked up stimulus .
When Did We Go Into the Water and When Did We Come Out ?
About four million years ago , sea water commence rising in the region now known as Somalia and the Arabian Peninsula . At the same time , the land dry up , push back the timber and shrinking the available resources . A mathematical group of early hominids , possibly Australopithecines , were stranded on islands . In the high peaks of those islands were apes who were challenger . On the shores was footling - to - no resource . Their only options were to take to the sea . Wading at first , the ocean became more and more a part of this ape ’s life style , shaping its posture , its outspoken cords , its sensation , its tyke - rearing techniques , and its body hair . As the sea retreated , and country became more uncommitted , it used its sea - acquire adaptations to spread along rivers and up onto land once more , displacing other other hominids , and becoming the first form of animal that would come to be human .

Arguments Against the Aquatic imitator
Sure , it could have happened . But did it ? There are several compelling reasons against the idea . The first is physiological . Humans do n’t just lose their hair to shed heat . They fall back water system to throw heat energy as well . That water gets shed through the skin . So far it seems that this would be as easily done in water as on land , but it ’s not quite the same rationale . Everyone knows the blessedly nerveless feeling of lifting a sweaty physical structure part up to a duck soup . The evaporation is what cool us , and the evaporation chance in air , not in piss . Humans might have suffer tomentum like dolphins , but why would humans educate a mechanics that would be useless in the very mass medium that caused them to spill hair in the first place ?
There ’s the fact that hairlessness is often seen in the rhino , and the rhino , unlike the hippo or even the elephant , is n’t much of an aquatic animal . Sure , it ’s been know to rove around in mud , but that does n’t a swimmer make . In fact , the Sumatran rhinoceros , the ripe swimmer of them all , which exist in Reginald Marsh , has a pelt pelage of crimson - brown tomentum . Plenty of copper , like angry boars , have hair as well .

The most compelling argumentation against the Aquatic Ape is a lack of evidence . Where are the intermediary stages of this Aquatic Ape ? Where are the bones engraft in ocean shores with shells ? Where are the teeth ? If the timeline of the theory is proper , they were under body of water , but with the retirement of the sea should be constitute along coastlines . seashore can be boons for find oneself fossils , as bones or shells contract into the guts can be slowly exposed by the waves . But no bones have been uncover . All we have is behaviors that might be explain many other ways .
In the end , this deficiency of fogy evidence is why the Aquatic Ape theory is n’t generally pursued by the scientific community at large . It can still remain a quirky theory though . And it surely could still be a fantastic horror movie .
Top Image : Willyam Bradberry / Shutterstock

Hippo Image : Patrick Gijsbers
seal off Image : US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration
Sumatran Rhino Image : Ltshears

ViaAquatic Ape.organdThe Aquatic anthropoid .
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