Aquatic Ape Human Ancestor Theory

Aquatic Ape Theory - What is it?

A Brief Summary of AAT - key arguments

A Brief History and Key Proponents of AAT

When / Where / How?

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Alternative theories of human evolution

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... Anatomical Evidence
... Bipedalism
... Birth and babies
... Brain
... Breath control
... Descended larynx
... Diet
... Diseases
... Fat
... Fingers, toes and feet
... Furlessness
... Hair and baldness
... Human ailments
... Kidneys
... Language & Song
... Menopause
... Nose
... Olfactory sense
... Pachyostosis
... Paranasal Sinuses
... Platycephaly
... Reverse osmosis
... Sexual features
... Sleep (USWS)
... Surfer's ear
... Sweating
... Tears
... Underwater vision
... Viruses
... Waterside environments

. Homo Ancestors
... Trachillos bipedal hominids
... Homo erectus
... Homo neanderthalensis
... Sea Gypsies/ the Moken
... Homo sapiens - water afinity
... Coastal Migration
... Pan and Gorilla ancestry
... Semi-Aquatic Animals

. Testable Hypotheses
. Fossil evidence
. Genetic evidence
. Paleoecological evidence
. Retroviral marker in apes
. Acheulean handaxes

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Teeth

http://carta.anthropogeny.org/moca/topics/enamel-structure-and-enamel-thickness


Do coastal macaques have (slightly) thicker tooth enamel than inland
macaques or than non-tool-using macaques? - ResearchGate. Available from:
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Do_coastal_macaques_have_slightly_thicker
_tooth_enamel_than_inland_macaques_or_than_non-tool-using_macaques#view=564
0667d5dbbbdc9d78b4567 [accessed Nov 9, 2015].

Amanda Tan answered:

I'm a graduate student under Dr Gumert, and I study the behaviour of 2
populations of tool-using macaques in Thailand.
I can confirm that there haven't been any studies to measure the tooth
enamel specifically of tool-using macaques.
However, I can share observations relevant to durophagy.

1)
The majority of the tool-processed foods these macaques eat are rock
oysters, that grow with one valve cemented onto substrate (e.g.
boulders/tree roots).
The macaques use tools to crack open the outward facing valve, but often
will then use their teeth to prise the broken shell off the oyster.
(I presume the adductor muscle of the oysters still sometimes hold the
broken shell and block access to the flesh.)

2)
Not all the macaques use tools, and those who do not sometimes physically
bite open their prey, especially clams.

3)
Crabs are a favourite food of these macaques, and upon catching a crab,
one of the first things they do is bite down through the carapace to
disable it.
Again, some will use tools on the crabs, and some just bite through the
shells, and in larger crabs the pincers can be quite large with thick
shells.

4)
I've also observed them feed on tiny snails (Echinolittorina malaccana),
and these they just crunch on like peanuts, often without using tools.

5)
They also feed on the seeds of shore plants like coconuts & sea almonds.
For coconuts, they use their teeth to rip off the outer husks. I think
this is not unique to tool-using macaque populations though.

You can find the list of foods eaten by one population in Laem Son
National Park in the paper already cited in one of the other answers,
and we are preparing a manuscript that will have the foods for another
population in Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park.


 
Website: F. Mansfield, 2015

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