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	Aquatic ape hypothesis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		The minority supports of the aquatic ape hypothesis say that the ancestors of modern humans went through one or more periods of time living in a semi-aquatic setting, gathering much of their food from shallow coastal or other waters, before their descendants returned to a more land-based existence.
		Proponents of the aquatic ape hypothesis argue that if evolution works in small steps (gradualism), it is hard to see how bipedalism could have evolved on the savanna: the mass of the torso makes it inherently unstable and inefficient for locomotion.
		The Aquatic Ape Theory, an argument for the hypothesis by Elaine Morgan.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Aquatic_Ape_Theory (2123 words)

	The Aquatic Ape Theory--Elaine Morgan
		The most widely held theory, still taught in schools and universities, is that we are descended from apes which moved out of the forests onto the grasslands of the open savannah.
		AAT points out that most of the "enigmatic" features of human physiology, though rare or even unique among land mammals, are common in aquatic ones.
		AAT is the only theory which logically connects all these and other enigmatic features and relates them to a single well attested historical event.
	www.primitivism.com /aquatic-ape.htm (2708 words)

	Directory - Science: Biology: Evolution: Human: Aquatic Ape Theory (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		Aquatic Ape Theory · cached · Self-professedly biased explanation of the Aquatic Ape theory and competing theories for the evolution of humans.
		River Apes · cached · Promotes a variation on the aquatic ape theory that suggests humans evolved from two hominids that were adapted to a water-side habitat.
		Aquatic Ape Story · cached · Short article of speculation by Michael Hyson, focusing on a 6.5 million year gap in the human fossil record, during which time we evolved many of our human characteristics.
	www.incywincy.com /default?p=5880499 (223 words)

	Straight Dope Staff Report: Did humans descend from "aquatic apes"? (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		The theory seemed reasonable enough to me, but every time I've heard paleontologists refer to it, they seem to be rolling their eyes the way archeologists do when you mention James Churchward to them.
		Apes and humans, on the other hand, tend to float vertically with their nostrils submerged.
		Only some aquatic mammals have lost all or most of their hair, and they are almost invariably very large species weighing a ton or more, whose ancestors have been living in the water for tens of millions of years.
	www.straightdope.com /mailbag/maquaticape.html (2397 words)

	aat.html (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		Aquatic Ape Theory has been scientifically reviewed, and, despite what was presented at this lecture, it has been found to be severely wanting.
		AAT is not a 'credible alternative theory'; it is what is known as a post-hoc accommodative argument.
		AAT is poorly regarded because it is a poor explanatory device.
	www.sfu.ca /~csmith/aat.html (530 words)

	ScienceDaily -- Browse Topics: Science/Biology/Evolution/Human/Aquatic_Ape_Theory (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		Aquatic Ape Theory - Self-professedly biased explanation of the Aquatic Ape theory and competing theories for the evolution of humans.
		River Apes - Promotes a variation on the aquatic ape theory that suggests humans evolved from two hominids that were adapted to a water-side habitat.
		Aquatic Ape Story - Short article of speculation by Michael Hyson, focusing on a 6.5 million year gap in the human fossil record, during which time we evolved many of our human characteristics.
	www.sciencedaily.com /directory/Science/Biology/Evolution/Human/Aquatic_Ape_Theory (747 words)

	To: All Msg #13, Nov0793 03:42PM Subject: Re: Request for Summary Aquatic Ape Theory Follo (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		We might note that the ancestors of all fully aquatic mammals were quadrupedal and observe that Proboscis monkeys, which have adopted a partially aquatic life in their recent evolutionary history, wade in shallow water and swim in deeper water.
		The AAT observes that hairlessness in mammals is most often associated with aquatic and semi-aquatic animals, usually combined with a layer of subcutaneous fat.
		Apes have eccrine glands on their palms and soles that exude moisture to improve their grip in an arboreal environment.
	www.skepticfiles.org /evolut/aquatica.htm (3815 words)

	IISDS - Aquatic Ape Theory (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		AAT proponents often also claim that the proportion of body fat in humans is higher that in non aquatic animals.
		The proponents of AAT claim that the presence of this flap of skin is a trait shared only by humans and aquatic animals, and that the purpose of the hymen is to protect the internal reproductive system.
		The AAT contention is that human tear glands are the remains of such glands from the purported human aquatic phase.
	www.clanhouse.com /Ignorance/beliefs/AAT.htm (4293 words)

	Imprint: Science - Adventures in Pseudoscience: The Aquatic Ape Theory (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		Convential hypotheses hold that man is descended from a tree-based ancestor, but the Aquatic Ape Theory (AAT) has a different explanation: competition for food forced a branch of pre-humans to live in the coastal regions of Africa and hunt for food in shallow water.
		When aquatic mammals make deep dives, their bodies compensate by cutting down blood supply to the extremities (but preserving supply to the brain and heart).
		AAT believers are upset that scientists refuse to dig for skeletons along the African coastlines.
	imprint.uwaterloo.ca /issues/100496/4Science/science03.html (349 words)

	Sea Shepherd - Ocean Realm Spring 2001
		The Aquatic Ape theory postulates that during a period of a million or two years after hominids broke away from chimpanzees, human ancestors spent a considerable time living and evolving in estuaries, marshy jungles and along coastal shorelines.
		When swimming, the aquatic apes would have kept one part of their anatomy above the water more than any other part, and that of course is the head.
		The most fascinating aspect of this theory however is the fact that humans possess the "diving reflex." The diving reflex, or bradycardia, is a condition that occurs in aquatic and semi aquatic animals.
	nederland.seashepherd.org /essays/ocean_realm_spr01.html (2615 words)

	Sacred Lands - Aquatic Ape Theory/Breathing (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		Apes, which breathe almost entirely through their nose, cannot do this.
		The advantage of the lowered larynx for a creature which was evolving to cope with a semi-aquatic lifestyle is that it would have been able to take deeper breaths and therefore stay under water for long periods.
		This theory is far more likely than the largely discredited idea that speech itself somehow caused a dramatic rearrangement of the larynx.
	www.sacredlands.org /aquatic_breathing.htm (223 words)

	The Aquatic Ape Theory
		My main reason for favoring the aquatic ape theory is that the savannah theory that is taught in classrooms is so hard to swallow.
		Critics of the aquatic ape theory are usually quite laughable - their main argument against AAT is that every detail of the theory isn't concretely provable.
		Aquatic environments rarely let remain fossilise jungles and what not are a blank spot in the record.
	survive2012.com /aquatic_ape_theory.php (4573 words)

	Aquatic Ape Theory Today: Part II by Paul Kotik on DeeperBlue.net - Fanatical About FreeDiving, Scuba Diving, ...
		So, if we have a theory that says, for example, that adapting to the conditions of the savannah caused some groups of LCA to stand upright and walk on two legs, a discovery of fossil evidence of bipedalism predating the emergence of the savannah ought to call that one into question.
		Please note: parsimony does not declare that this theory is the 'truest' or the one most likely to be true, rather, it makes the self-evident point that focussing on the most parsimonious theory is generally the most cost-effective, efficient way for science to proceed.
		The AAT shares a big, basic assumption with several of its competitors: natural selection as the mechanism by which species are differentiated.
	www.deeperblue.net /article.php/409/17/1 (800 words)

	Aquatic Ape Theory (AAT): Sink or Swim?
		The Aquatic Ape Theory (often referred to as the AAT or AAH) says humans went through an aquatic or semi-aquatic stage in our evolution and that this accounts for many features seen in human anatomy and physiology.
		All scientific theories need to be examined for accuracy; it's an essential component of the process of science.
		The references for AAT statements, when they are given at all, are often maddeningly incomplete or misleading.
	www.aquaticape.org (2131 words)

	sciforums.com - Aquatic Ape Theory
		But not like it isn't possible that their were aquatic apes, it just sounds rediculous, and there certainly isn't much evidence for it, it just might explain the lack of hair we have......
		What does show evidence against this aquatic stuff is the fact that there are no fossils (that i know of) of apes or ape like things under the water...
		Apes came indirectly from the ocean as all other creatures probably have (no proof that things werent living in the atmousphere though).
	www.sciforums.com /printthread.php?t=10394 (1818 words)

	Aquatic Ape Theory - Bad Astronomy and Universe Today Forum (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		Not as popular as it was a few years ago, Not realy a theory, there isn't that much evidence apart from a few ad-hoc and post-hoc reasons for various parts of the anatomy being the way they are.
		(Aquatic Ape Theory) conforms to current theories of speciation better than the savannah origins model, and accounts for a number of diverse phenomena hitherto not seen as connected.
		A sequelae from the aquatic ape theory, as I recall, is the breasts allow women to float up-right in a watery environment.
	www.bautforum.com /showthread.php?p=148549#post148549 (2013 words)

	Aquatic Ape Theory (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		The "aquatic ape" theory never provoked anything more than derision or embarrassment among anthropologists, and to this day only one academic exchange on the subject has been published.
		Competition in the harsh, savannah environment, the theory held, led to an upright gait, tool-use and expanding brainpower.
		Tobias argues that the theory should be renamed, perhaps as "water and human evolution".
	www.cise.ufl.edu /~nantonio/aquatic_ape_theory.htm (2939 words)

	sciforums.com - Aquatic Ape Theory
		He was the predecessor of Darwin whose theory of acquired characteristics held that the stature of the giraffe came from generations of giraffe parents straining their necks ever farther to reach the leafy branches of the banyan tree, then -- and this was the wacky part -- passing their long necks on to their kids.
		I am suggesting however, that some ape decendants would have become separated from the root family of primate with one branch heading for the jungles/savannas and the other continuing to live in/around the coastal waters.
		Many years later these amphibian apes may also have lost their ability (edge) to survive for the same previously mentioned reasons and their land adapting decendants gradually lost many of the traits of it's amphibian predessors as it became more land based again.
	www.sciforums.com /showthread.php?p=154572 (3059 words)

	Tim Worstall: The Aquatic Ape Theory.
		Tim Worstall gives us the latest on a theory I've been fond of for about 15 years (and which was just about impossible to find discussed prior to the advent of the internet).
		'Aquatic Ape' is about how there was a semi aquatic stage in the process leading to the development of modern humans.
		All "evidence" given for he theory is simply hypothetical and not backed sufficiently by scientific evidence as opose to AAH.
	timworstall.typepad.com /timworstall/2005/05/the_aquatic_ape.html (841 words)

	Alister Hardy
		These things don't mean that his aquatic ape theory couldn't be a good theory -- he certainly had done lots of very good work as a scientist -- but it does indicate that he wasn't adverse to tripping over the fuzzier edges that mark the border between science and pseudoscience.
		So his "mild", "modest", "boringly obvious" version of the theory states that hominids were aquatic for several times longer than they have existed, and longer than even the most die-hard holdouts against the fossil and molecular evidence suggested at the time he said this.
		Unfortunately, the "aquatic ape" turns out to be exceedingly flammable for a water-dweller, and even the slightest criticism burns it beyond hope of recovery.
	www.aquaticape.org /hardy.html (3564 words)

	Aquatic Ape Theory - Page 3 - Bad Astronomy and Universe Today Forum (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		Aquatic Ape 'theory is no more substantiated than Von Daniken and his Ancient Astronauts.
		All infant mammals have the "swimming response" -- although AAT proponents ignore this, it's been known for over 60 years now (in fact it was pointed out in the very paper many of them cite in claiming it's uniquely human -- it's on the same page, even).
		AAT doesn't even present itself as a rival to the Savannah Hypthesis.
	www.bautforum.com /showthread.php?p=149824#post149824 (3796 words)

	Pop Occulture: The Aquatic Ape Theory (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		It seems the theory is held with some derision by mainstream science, but overall, it's pretty interesting.
		The prevailing hypothesis is that humans evolved from apes who left the forest to live on the savannah.
		The acquatic ape theory (AAT) conjectures that there was a period in between forest and savannah living, which possibly consisted of immense flooding of habitats, and groups of apes taking to the water to survive it.
	www.timboucher.com /journal/2004/08/aquatic-ape-theory.html (477 words)

	Aquatic Ape Theory - Stormfront White Nationalist Community (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		I know many "traditional" scientists are happier with the Savannah theory than the AAT, but as of yet, ive never seen a good rebutal of their claims.
		It is reasonable to speculate that a diet rich in fish and other seafood may have provided the nutritional building blocks needed for the evolution of more voluminous (and advanced) brains.
		I think the theory makes a lot of sense, especially considering humans will build pools in their yards and travel miles just to get into the water.
	www.stormfront.org /forum/showthread.php?t=189803 (622 words)

	Human Origins
		She argued that many, if not all, of the anatomical curiosities of the human species could be explained if one posited a prolonged phase of evolution in an aquatic or semi-aquatic environment, specifically the Danakil Alps on the east coast of Ethiopia between 7 and 5 million years ago.
		The aquatic ape theory would explain man’s bipedalism, nakedness, subcutaneous fat, salty sweat glands, larynx and tongue arrangement, ear wax, and body hair pattern.
		The aquatic ape theory proposes no major modifications to existing Darwinian theory, but improves its explanation of the origins of man by positing a long period spent evolving in an aquatic environment.
	www.eridu.co.uk /Author/human_origins/aquatic_ape.html (461 words)

	The Aquatic Ape - in from the cold? - LLB April '96
		AAT referred to all this as "the savanna theory".
		The strength of savanna theory lay in its contention that the hominids' habitat was radically different from that of the apes.
		The strongest argument for AAT is the number and variety of Homo's unique features, for some of which the aquatic explanation is the only one on offer.
	www.llb.labournet.org.uk /1996/april/sci.html (729 words)

	Aquatic Ape Theory
		I believe the AAT has many valid points, and answers questions yet unanswered by conventional theories.
		I was first introduced to AAT when I happened upon a book in the library called "The Descent of Woman" written by Elaine Morgan.
		Darwin’s theory of evolution propose that we share a common ancestor with apes.
	www.angelfire.com /mo/aylashome/AAT.html (1415 words)

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