Re: Updated AAH Definition

From: Algis Kuliukas (algis_at_RiverApes.com)
Date: 11/12/04 

Date: 11 Nov 2004 17:49:34 -0800

"Marc Verhaegen" <fa204466@skynet.be> wrote in message news:<41933e5e$0$9747$ba620e4c@news.skynet.be>...
> "Algis Kuliukas" <algis@RiverApes.com> wrote in message
> news:77a70442.0411101819.4c7f81a1@posting.google.com...
>
> > How about this, updated, version, Marc?... The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis
> (AAH): The hypothesis that water has acted as an agent of selection in the
> evolution of humans more than it has in the evolution of our ape cousins and
> that, as a result, many of the major physical differences between humans and
> the other apes may be explained, at least in part, as adaptations to moving
> (wading, swimming and/or diving) better through various aquatic media and
> from greater feeding on resources that might be procured from such habitats.
>
> Excellent. Only, I'm not convinced we need definitions of "Aquatic Ape
> Hypothesis": it's a misnomer IMO: it's not about apes, but about Homo, it's
> not about having been aquatic (some people get weird ideas when hey hear the
> word "aquatic"), but waterside, and it's not a hypothesis, but a theory. I
> prefer "AAT" - everybody knows what it's about (aqatic ape / aquarboreal
> apes / amphibious ancestors / ...):

I agree it's a misnomer but I think it's probably too late to change
it really. We've discussed all of this many times, and the result is
always the same - leave it as the AAH.

> "AAT proposes that water has acted as an agent of selection in the evolution
> of humans (Homo) more than it has in that of chimpanzees (Pan), and that
> many of the major physical differences between humans and the other apes may
> be explained, in part, as adaptations to moving better through various
> aquatic media (wading, swimming and/or diving) and from greater feeding on
> aquatic and waterside resources."

I'm not sure we gain anything from specifying Homo. Homo means humans
anyway and precludes australopiths and other pre-Homo taxa. I think
'ape cousins' is better than specifying the chimpanzee because we need
to include bonobos, gorillas and orangs in there too. Maybe it should
be 'great ape cousins' because gibbons are rather more distant.
 
I shied away from using the specific term 'aquatic' when describing
foods because I think it might be a little too restrictive. I used
'resources that might be procured from such habitats' to include the
rich flora that tends to concentrate around wetlands. I think
aridification in E. Africa in the Pliocene would have caused hominids
to retreat back to gallery forest refugia and hence, paradoxically,
the drier it got the closer to water they'd become.

> We certainly need Homo in the definition: AAT sensu stricto is about Homo,
> has nothing to do with apiths.

Homo means Human.
 
> I'd prefer this: "AAT proposes that human ancestors, during a certain period
> after the Homo/Pan split, spent an important part of their day in water,
> wading, swimming and diving, and feeding on aquatic and waterside foods."
> (why make it longer than necessary?)

See, I don't like that because:
a) It is specifically only talking about *after* the Pan/Homo split.
This kind of denies much of your model, doesn't it? I deliberately
avoided timescale references so that the Hardy/Morgan and all of your
ideas could be covered.

b) It says nothing about the ape-human differences being explained by
this shift in habitat. I think that's the key issue.
 
> This is a minimalistic definition: I'd be more explicit (& more debatable):
>
> "The Aquarboreal Ape Theory proposes that most Miocene hominoids lived in
> coastal/swamp forests, and that Homo, after the Homo/Pan split, became
> seaside omnivores that once fed predominantly on aquatic and waterside
> foods."

That's fine, Marc. But again, my opinion is that this would be too
specific for a general AAH definiton.
 
> If more details are needed, I propose our scenario, of course:
>
> - Aquarboreal Apes Theory of hominoid evolution: "Hominids (chimpanzees,
> humans and gorillas) and pongids (orangutans) split in the Miocene. A
> climbing-plus-wading lifestyle in coastal or swamp forests, where most
> Miocene hominid-pongid fossils are found, helps explain how they (starting
> from a more monkey-like body build with narrow thorax and above-branch
> locomotion) lost the tail, became much larger, and developed arm-hanging for
> below-branch locomotion."
>
> - Amphibious Ancestors Theory of Homo evolution (AAT sensu stricto):
> "Plio-Pleistocene human ancestors were sea-side omnivores during a certain
> period after the Homo/Pan split. A lifestyle of beach-combing, wading,
> swimming, collecting coconuts, shellfish, turtles and turtle eggs, bird
> eggs, crabs, seaweeds etc. explains many Homo traits (absent in Pan) much
> better than dry savanna scenarios do: very large brain, greater breathing
> control and diving skills, smaller mouth and masticatory reduction (myosine
> MYH16), well-developed vocality, external nose, extreme handiness and tool
> use, reduction of climbing skills, reduction of fur, more subcutaneous fat,
> very long legs, more linear body build, reduction of olfactory sense, late
> puberty, high needs of iodine, sodium and poly-unsaturated fatty acids, etc.
> and in archaic Homo, pachyostosis, auditory exostoses, platycephaly, etc."

These are great definitions of your variant of the AAH and I think
I'll strat to build that web page up with these variants. People
should realise that the AAH is not a monolithic idea.
 
I've posted your comments up on
http://www.riverapes.com/AAH/AAHDefined.htm. Thanks again, Marc.

Algis Kuliukas

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