Aquatic Ape Theory - What is it?

A Brief Summary of AAT - key arguments

A Brief History and Key Proponents of AAT

When / Where / How?

Ape to Human Evolution Timeline

Alternative theories of human evolution

Wikipedia and the scientific community

... 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

A call to scientists...

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AAT Testable Hypotheses

Some of the testable hypotheses generated by AAT.

If the practice of wading, swimming and diving to procure food from aquatic habitats significantly affected the evolution of human ancestors through natural selection, then we can hypothesise...

1. That vernix in humans might be an aquatic adaptation
   
   This was tested by looking for, and finding, other aquatic mammals whose young are born with vernix, analysing the chemical composition, and confirming that both are based on squalene. No vernix was found on any land mammal. 
   
   It was further established that babies who are born before they have ingested most of their vernix are prone to neonatal death from water-borne gut infections, regardless of birth weight. 
   
   Birth and babies in AAT
   
   
2. That our unique distribution of eccrine glands might be a marine adaptation that would enable us to absorb adequate fresh water from sea water through the skin without needing to drink anything at all.
   
   This was confirmed experimentally and a second series of invigilated multiple-participant experiments with controls has just been completed, to be followed by a parallel experiment using heavy water (D2O) to confirm transdermal hydration of body fluids.
   
   Infiltrating Transdermal Reverse Osmosis
   
   
3. That the large human brain could only have evolved on a marine diet.
   
   This was tested by comparing the nutrients in shellfish, fish, crustaceans and seaweed with the minimum dietary requirements of a range of nutrients that are essential to brain development and contrasting them with those available from land-based foods. This work has received global attention and made omega 3 and omega 6 household names.
   
   Brain and Diet in AAT
   
   
4. That the only possible use for "stone axes," whose design remained unchanged for 2 million years, was for processing aquatic bivalves.
   
   Stone axes were tested experimentally by expert butchers in dismembering an animal carcass. It was found that the Acheulian hand axe was not capable of cutting the skin, of scraping the hide, of slicing the flesh or of removing the flesh from the bone. It could be used to crack bones to extract marrow, but no more effectively than any other stone. They won't cut wood either.
   
   The vast majority of the hundreds of thousands of stone axes are ideal for shucking clams and oysters and have all been found along coasts and watercourses, along with hundreds of millions of tons of fossil evidence around the world in the form of shell middens. These used to be quarried for road fill, but are beginning to be systematically excavated. The stones selected for 'axe' making all have a hardness greater than that of clam shells.
   
   Aechulian Clam Shuckers
   
   
5. That labour would be easier for the mother and less stressful for the child in an aquatic environment. 
   
   This has been tested and confirmed countless times and birthing pools are now considered a perfectly normal option for mothers.
   
   Birth and babies in AAT

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but the Savannah theory only ever generated one hypothesis -- that the areas where early human-like remains have been found, like Olduvai, must have been Savannah at the time. Examination immediately discovered fossilised jungle vines and countless catfish bones instead

All the above research has been prompted, supported or carried out by world class scientists in their fields, all of whom are long-time supporters of AAT and who have said that they were motivated to do the research by reading The Descent of Woman.

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