Aquatic Ape Theory
There are many debates about how Homo sapiens came to be. Different people have different theories or ideas about the evolution of man. There is the Christian belief that a spiritual power put humans onto the earth, this view is shared by many religions throughout the world, this is not strictly evolution but is called the creationism theory. The theory of evolution was first brought to scientists' attention by Charles Darwin one hundred and forty years ago, where he speculated that man evolved from earlier life form. Since then scientists have been trying to solve the mysteries of mans origins. There is a period of time before approximately five million years ago that has no fossil evidence to prove the step from ape like primates to hominids, the theories of evolution all ponder on this period to try and find "the missing link". There are many theories of human evolution, although just two are widely debated by scientists today. The savannah hypothesis is a theory that man evolved from the primates that were forced down from the trees in the African rainforests to the dry African savannah and thereby had to adapt to this new way of life. The other is the aquatic ape theory. This theory says that man evo
There is fossil evidence that indicates bipedal locomotion had been achieved by four million years ago and bipedalism preceded the expansion of the brain (Morgan, 1994). This essay will explore the aquatic ape theory in depth and show the arguments for and against this theory. The aquatic ape theory has fossil records that show bipedalism occurred before large brains, it also has gene evidence of a virus that swept across Africa around the time the apes were thought to be on a secluded island. The savannah theory says that humans lost their hair in order to "prevent over heating in the savannah" (AAT leaflet), but no other mammal's evolution has ever naturally selected this strategy. The evidence however is not solid and until hard proof like fossils on the Danakil Island are found then the aquatic ape hypothesis will remain a hypothesis. These primates live in swampy areas and have been proven to swim and spend a lot of their time in the water. The aquatic ape theory was demonstrated by Sir Alistair Hardy in his original paper "Was man more aquatic in the past?". This is known as the diving reflex, it involves breath holding, slowing of heartrate, decrease of blood supply to extremities and gradual rise in mean arterial blood pressure. This increased meat diet decreased the size of the digestive tract as plant matter takes longer to digest than meat, thus meaning the body had extra energy to use on another system. It puts across the idea of a more aquatic primate that lived near water, using it more readily than modern humans do today. In this environment the human like primates thrived as their new adaptations helped them survive, then when Africa rejoined Europe the new Homo type primates moved to colonise other regions. The type of food in the aquatic environment contained two nutrients essential for growth of the brain. The diving reflex can however be seen as an argument against the aquatic ape theory, as "most diving animals exhale reflexly on submergion, whereas man inhales" (Nicholls, 1996). The argument supporting the aquatic ape hypothesis grows in strength as new evidence and theories are being discovered. The aquatic ape theory argues that in order for the aquatic apes to lose the excess salt ingested in the salty environment these adaptations were necessary.
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Acceptance Essays
