Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The aquatic ape hypothesis (AAH), also referred to as aquatic ape theory (AAT) or the waterside hypothesis of human evolution, postulates that the ancestors of modern humans took a divergent evolutionary pathway from the other great apes by becoming adapted to a more aquatic habitat. [1]
Elaine Morgan OBE, FRSL (7 November 1920 – 12 July 2013), [1] was a Welsh writer for television and the author of several books on evolutionary anthropology.She advocated the aquatic ape hypothesis, which advocated as a corrective to what she saw as theories that purveyed gendered stereotypes and failed to account for women's role in human evolution adequately.
Mermaids: The Body Found is a mockumentary television program [1] originally aired on American TV channels Animal Planet (May 27, 2012) and Discovery Channel (June 17, 2012). It tells a story of a scientific team's investigative efforts to uncover the source behind mysterious underwater recordings of an unidentified marine body.
In 1972, Morgan began writing The Descent of Woman by focusing on the aquatic ape hypothesis which was coined in 1960 by marine biologist Alister Hardy. Hardy's theory was that ancestors of humans existed during the Pliocene epoch within a forming Africa that was experiencing drought , as hairy four-legged organisms that could not communicate ...
The aquatic ape hypothesis (AAH) includes hair loss as one of several characteristics of modern humans that could indicate adaptations to an aquatic environment. Serious consideration may be given by contemporary anthropologists to some hypotheses related to AAH, but hair loss is not one of them.
The "aquatic ape hypothesis", as originally formulated, has not been accepted or considered a serious theory within the anthropological scholarly community. [91] Others, however, have sought to promote wading as a factor in the origin of human bipedalism without referring to further ("aquatic ape" related) factors.
Fearing a backlash against such a radical idea, he kept this hypothesis secret until 1960, when he spoke and later wrote on the subject, which subsequently became known as the aquatic ape hypothesis in academic circles, [10] and has been promoted in particular by Elaine Morgan, who acknowledged her debt to Hardy in her book The Scars of ...
Before the discovery of Ardipithecus and other pre-Australopithecus hominins, it was assumed that the chimpanzee–human last common ancestor and preceding apes appeared much like modern-day chimpanzees, orangutans and gorillas, which would have meant these three changed very little over millions of years.