econiche Homo
gregladen | January 30, 2013Common misconceptions and unproven assumptions about the aquatic ape theory
A Guest Post by Marc Verhaegen
*2013 m_verhaegen@skynet.be
It is often assumed that Alister Hardy’s and Elaine Morgan’s aquatic ape theory (AAT) suggests that more than 5 Ma (million years ago) there was a semi-aquatic phase in our past (explaining e.g. human fur loss, fatness and upright bipedalism), which was followed by a savanna phase on the African plains. In 2011, AAT proponents published an eBook, Was Man more aquatic in the past?, which showed a rather different picture of AAT. Here I very briefly describe my…