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From: riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle)
Newsgroups: net.origins,net.bio
Subject: Re: An acquatic phase in human evolution?
Message-ID: <2163@ut-sally.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 28-Apr-84 17:37:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: ut-sally.2163
Posted: Sat Apr 28 17:37:53 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 29-Apr-84 08:09:13 EDT
References: <1143@seismo.UUCP> <7829@cornell.UUCP>
Organization: U. of Tx. at Houston-in-the-Hills
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If memory serves, Carl Sagan also mentioned some variant of this theory
in his book of nearly a decade back, "The Dragons of Eden".  I'm sure
that he got the idea from some even earlier source.  Check Sagan's book
for references.

He also cited a couple more purportedly aquatic features which we have
but the other primates lack:  our downturned nostrils (quite an aid in
holding one's breath underwater) and the traces of webbing found
between our fingers and toes.  If I recall Sagan's statement of the
theory correctly, the speculation is not that we were ever exclusively
aquatic like whales or porpoises, but that we evolved at water's edge,
spending considerable time both in and out of the water.

--- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.")
--- {ihnp4,seismo,gatech,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle