A collection of papers was recently published, aiming to update the current stance on what is traditionally labeled the 'aquatic ape hypothesis'. This theory about human evolution is today multifaceted with several distinct theories and hypotheses.
One chapter in this collection of peer reviewed papers specifically deals with the freediving aspect of human ability, so for those interested in this topic, below are abstracts of a bulk of those papers.
Discussion specifically about this topic has recently been launched here:
Waterside-Hypotheses
---
Source:
"Was Man More Aquatic In The Past? Fifty Years After Alister Hardy Waterside Hypothesis Of Human Evolution."
Editors: Vaneechoutte M., Verhaegen M., Kuliukas A.
eISBN: 978-1-60805-244-8, 2011
Publishers Home Page
(No affiliation ...)
Chapter abstracts, part 1:
Ch 1: "Revisiting Water and Hominin Evolution"
Phillip V. Tobias
For many investigators, the role of water in the evolution of the Hominini refers to the development of a number of anatomical and physiological features, which hominins are thought to share with water-adapted animals. However, in the last dozen years, there has been emphasis on other ways in which water, and the proximity to water, have been probable influences in hominin evolution. This chapter reviews each of five ways in which water has influenced or might have affected human evolution. This pentapartite analysis singles out water for drinking, for keeping cool, for global dispersal, as a basis for aquatic adaptations and for the ingesting of aquatic foods. In contrast with the heavy, earth-bound view of hominin evolution, which has predominated hitherto, an appeal is made here for students of hominin evolution to buoy up, lighten and leaven their strategy by adopting a far greater emphasis upon the role of water and waterways in hominin phylogeny, diversification, and dispersal from one water-girt milieu to others. Some evidence is adduced to show the value and potential of this course of action.
Ch 2: "Littoral Man and Waterside Woman: The Crucial Role of Marine and Lacustrine Foods and Environmental Resources in the Origin, Migration and Dominance of Homo sapiens"
C. Leigh Broadhurst, Michael Crawford and Stephen Munro
The ability to exploit and thrive on a wide variety of foodstuffs from diverse environments is a hallmark of Homo sapiens. Humans are particularly well adapted to exploit waterside environments, where they can forage in areas offering protection from both terrestrial and aquatic predators. Humans are able to walk, run, climb, wade, swim and dive, and our research indicates that the most parsimonious explanation for this combination of locomotor traits, and for Man's current anatomy, physiology, nutritional requirements and unique intellect is evolution in a littoral environment. This model is consistent with the location and presumed palaeoecologies of all early Homo fossils and artifacts, and could help explain the rapid dispersal of Homo in the early Pleistocene (2.56-0.78 million years ago (Ma)), the colonization of Australia and Indonesia in the middle Pleistocene (0.78-0.13 Ma), and the rapid dispersal of Homo sapiens in the late Pleistocene (0.13-0.012 Ma). Reliance on the aquatic food chain is also a facile method for providing consistently abundant brain-specific nutrition for all members of a group or society, thus facilitating the development of the technology and culture that is uniquely human.
Ch 3: "A Wading Component in the Origin of Hominin Bipedalism"
Algis V Kuliukas
For over 150 years the field of palaeo-anthropology has grappled with several problems of understanding human evolution, notably those explaining key differences between human beings and our most closely related species, the African great apes. The first difference to be explained, perhaps in terms of importance but certainly in terms of chronology, is our bipedality.
This chapter will review the models of hominin bipedal origins published to date, and categorize them, as was done by Rose, by the adaptive mechanism being suggested. In addition, it will propose a new evaluative framework against which each model may be assessed and compared. In this evaluation, published wading models appear to be among the strongest although they are among the least well reported in university-level text books, a discrepancy attributed here to their association with the so-called ‘ aquatic ape hypothesis’ (AAH). Despite their apparent strengths, published wading models do nevertheless contain weaknesses. This chapter addresses a few of those weaknesses either theoretically or through studies, such as one obtaining new empirical data comparing the energy efficiency of different bipedal gaits in water. Furthermore, a series of falsifiable predictions of the wading hypothesis are made about the postcranial anatomy of australopithecines.
The chapter concludes by proposing a specific timescale and ecological niche where such wading behavior could have provided a stable evolutionary scenario in early hominins that is compatible with the fossil record and other models of human evolution.
Ch 4: "Early Hominoids: Orthograde Aquarboreals in Flooded Forests?"
Marc Verhaegen, Stephen Munro, Pierre-Francois Puech and Mario Vaneechoutte
The great (orangutans, gorillas and chimpanzees) and lesser apes (siamangs and gibbons) are significantly different to monkeys, yet the evolution of the apes is rarely discussed in detail, especially from a human evolutionary perspective. Assuming that the early primates were arboreal and that human ancestors were semi-aquatic, human predecessors in the intermediary phase must have been aquarboreal, i.e., spent significant time in both trees (Latin arbor) and water (Latin aqua). Here we describe a number of independent indications that early apes – possibly as early as 20 Ma (million years ago) – were vertical aquarboreal frugi-omnivores in swamp forests.
Apes differ from monkeys in having a below-branch locomotion, with larger and broader bodies and thoraxes, very long arms that can easily be extended above the head, and tail loss. Whereas most mammals and monkeys predominantly move pronogradely (with horizontal spine and trunk), the remarkably humanlike lumbar vertebra of Morotopithecus suggests that by about 20 Ma the early apes were already orthograde (with a generally vertical spine). According to the palaeo-environmental data, the fossils of Mio-Pliocene apes typically lay in coastal and swamp forest sediments around the Tethys Sea (the ancient Mediterranean Sea). The Miocene (23.0 to 5.3 Ma) and the Pliocene (5.3 to 2.6 Ma) epochs were generally hotter and wetter than the Pleistocene Ice Ages (2.6 to 0.01 Ma). Recently, the highest population densities of orangutans as well as gorillas have been discovered in extremely hot and wet swamp forests.
Since all great apes can make and use tools, and most fossil great apes had thick enamel, the ancestral great ape diet in flooded forests might have included durophagy of hard-shelled foods (e.g., palm nuts or molluscs). Locomotor requirements for flooded forest dwelling could arguably have included a bigger body with vertical climbing abilities, including with arms overhead and arm-hanging. Lowland gorillas employ an orthograde posture and locomotion when they climb, wade through shallow swamps, and sit and feed in shallow water.
One chapter in this collection of peer reviewed papers specifically deals with the freediving aspect of human ability, so for those interested in this topic, below are abstracts of a bulk of those papers.
Discussion specifically about this topic has recently been launched here:
Waterside-Hypotheses
---
Source:
"Was Man More Aquatic In The Past? Fifty Years After Alister Hardy Waterside Hypothesis Of Human Evolution."
Editors: Vaneechoutte M., Verhaegen M., Kuliukas A.
eISBN: 978-1-60805-244-8, 2011
Publishers Home Page
(No affiliation ...)
Chapter abstracts, part 1:
Ch 1: "Revisiting Water and Hominin Evolution"
Phillip V. Tobias
For many investigators, the role of water in the evolution of the Hominini refers to the development of a number of anatomical and physiological features, which hominins are thought to share with water-adapted animals. However, in the last dozen years, there has been emphasis on other ways in which water, and the proximity to water, have been probable influences in hominin evolution. This chapter reviews each of five ways in which water has influenced or might have affected human evolution. This pentapartite analysis singles out water for drinking, for keeping cool, for global dispersal, as a basis for aquatic adaptations and for the ingesting of aquatic foods. In contrast with the heavy, earth-bound view of hominin evolution, which has predominated hitherto, an appeal is made here for students of hominin evolution to buoy up, lighten and leaven their strategy by adopting a far greater emphasis upon the role of water and waterways in hominin phylogeny, diversification, and dispersal from one water-girt milieu to others. Some evidence is adduced to show the value and potential of this course of action.
Ch 2: "Littoral Man and Waterside Woman: The Crucial Role of Marine and Lacustrine Foods and Environmental Resources in the Origin, Migration and Dominance of Homo sapiens"
C. Leigh Broadhurst, Michael Crawford and Stephen Munro
The ability to exploit and thrive on a wide variety of foodstuffs from diverse environments is a hallmark of Homo sapiens. Humans are particularly well adapted to exploit waterside environments, where they can forage in areas offering protection from both terrestrial and aquatic predators. Humans are able to walk, run, climb, wade, swim and dive, and our research indicates that the most parsimonious explanation for this combination of locomotor traits, and for Man's current anatomy, physiology, nutritional requirements and unique intellect is evolution in a littoral environment. This model is consistent with the location and presumed palaeoecologies of all early Homo fossils and artifacts, and could help explain the rapid dispersal of Homo in the early Pleistocene (2.56-0.78 million years ago (Ma)), the colonization of Australia and Indonesia in the middle Pleistocene (0.78-0.13 Ma), and the rapid dispersal of Homo sapiens in the late Pleistocene (0.13-0.012 Ma). Reliance on the aquatic food chain is also a facile method for providing consistently abundant brain-specific nutrition for all members of a group or society, thus facilitating the development of the technology and culture that is uniquely human.
Ch 3: "A Wading Component in the Origin of Hominin Bipedalism"
Algis V Kuliukas
For over 150 years the field of palaeo-anthropology has grappled with several problems of understanding human evolution, notably those explaining key differences between human beings and our most closely related species, the African great apes. The first difference to be explained, perhaps in terms of importance but certainly in terms of chronology, is our bipedality.
This chapter will review the models of hominin bipedal origins published to date, and categorize them, as was done by Rose, by the adaptive mechanism being suggested. In addition, it will propose a new evaluative framework against which each model may be assessed and compared. In this evaluation, published wading models appear to be among the strongest although they are among the least well reported in university-level text books, a discrepancy attributed here to their association with the so-called ‘ aquatic ape hypothesis’ (AAH). Despite their apparent strengths, published wading models do nevertheless contain weaknesses. This chapter addresses a few of those weaknesses either theoretically or through studies, such as one obtaining new empirical data comparing the energy efficiency of different bipedal gaits in water. Furthermore, a series of falsifiable predictions of the wading hypothesis are made about the postcranial anatomy of australopithecines.
The chapter concludes by proposing a specific timescale and ecological niche where such wading behavior could have provided a stable evolutionary scenario in early hominins that is compatible with the fossil record and other models of human evolution.
Ch 4: "Early Hominoids: Orthograde Aquarboreals in Flooded Forests?"
Marc Verhaegen, Stephen Munro, Pierre-Francois Puech and Mario Vaneechoutte
The great (orangutans, gorillas and chimpanzees) and lesser apes (siamangs and gibbons) are significantly different to monkeys, yet the evolution of the apes is rarely discussed in detail, especially from a human evolutionary perspective. Assuming that the early primates were arboreal and that human ancestors were semi-aquatic, human predecessors in the intermediary phase must have been aquarboreal, i.e., spent significant time in both trees (Latin arbor) and water (Latin aqua). Here we describe a number of independent indications that early apes – possibly as early as 20 Ma (million years ago) – were vertical aquarboreal frugi-omnivores in swamp forests.
Apes differ from monkeys in having a below-branch locomotion, with larger and broader bodies and thoraxes, very long arms that can easily be extended above the head, and tail loss. Whereas most mammals and monkeys predominantly move pronogradely (with horizontal spine and trunk), the remarkably humanlike lumbar vertebra of Morotopithecus suggests that by about 20 Ma the early apes were already orthograde (with a generally vertical spine). According to the palaeo-environmental data, the fossils of Mio-Pliocene apes typically lay in coastal and swamp forest sediments around the Tethys Sea (the ancient Mediterranean Sea). The Miocene (23.0 to 5.3 Ma) and the Pliocene (5.3 to 2.6 Ma) epochs were generally hotter and wetter than the Pleistocene Ice Ages (2.6 to 0.01 Ma). Recently, the highest population densities of orangutans as well as gorillas have been discovered in extremely hot and wet swamp forests.
Since all great apes can make and use tools, and most fossil great apes had thick enamel, the ancestral great ape diet in flooded forests might have included durophagy of hard-shelled foods (e.g., palm nuts or molluscs). Locomotor requirements for flooded forest dwelling could arguably have included a bigger body with vertical climbing abilities, including with arms overhead and arm-hanging. Lowland gorillas employ an orthograde posture and locomotion when they climb, wade through shallow swamps, and sit and feed in shallow water.
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