Re: Human pretending to be a frog nearly drowns.....

Lee: Well, I don't know what DD's aquatic-time estimate is based on, or
why
4+ should be typical?

DD: 4(+) hrs. spent food foraging aquatically. IOW about 4 hours
gathering foods per day in water, with additional water time likely. I
don't see any reason to think they couldn't have spent 8 - 12 hours per
day water side (in and around water), while nightly spending 8 hours
sleeping in dry sand pockets covered with palm fronds (orangs sleep in
tree nests with covers), sort of shallow (military) foxholes, not so
different (in concept form) from Mandan shelters or mammoth bone
shelters, partly dug into the ground and covered with hides.

Lee: What triggers the switch from terrestrial to semi-aquatic? Four
hours is only one third of day at the equator. If 4+ is good in the
water, then 8+ should be twice as good,

DD: From an arboreal-terrestrial-part aquatic (macaque-like) to a
semi-aquatic marine Homo, a gradual increase in water-time due to
increased aquatic foraging and less arboreal foraging. I don't think
they spent 8 hours a day forgaging, though possible I guess.

Lee: It depends on what you are going to do after you get done washing
the dishes.

DD: Right. I think after they got done in the water, they basked in the
sand pockets, to bring their body temperatures up a bit (like marine
iguanas). I don't think they would have immediately climbed a tree or
begun a trek, so the wrinkling wouldn't have been significant. Once
dried and warmed the wrinkling disappears. I think barnacles are
usually inter-tidal, above and below that zone no barnacles. Callouses
are handy for terrestrial use, not full-time aquatics. Sea lions
probably have callouses, manatees don't? I don't think they would have
entered obsidian quarries with wet feet, I don't think they had to
hurry.

Lee: Two and a half million years ago hominids were out on the savanna.
That
takes thick callouses..

DD: I don't think most of those hominids were our ancestors, they were
probably inland cousins of our ancestors, though due to migrations,
some of our ancestors probably died in savanna areas.

Lee: Yes, fresh water, that's where the early hominid evidence is at,
not
on the salt-water beaches.

DD: Evidence lasts longer in dry climates and caves, rarely lasts on
beaches. For example, there are probably many Antarctic seal skeletons
inland buried in snow and ice, but the vast majority of them live and
die near the shoreline, where the carcasses are quickly decomposed.
Fossil evidence would indicate that seals are inland species.
It isn't surprising that early hominid evidence would be found at fresh
water areas.

Lee: What inland transits? What is your evidence for those? I like the
rock-cliff idea, but those are found inland also, don't need the sea
for that. Kick a few baboons out of the way, and home sweet home.

DD: Since I consider them to be seasonal migrants, I expect them to
have visited rivers and lakes while travelling along coastal areas. The
seaside locale is not favored by most large land predators, they prefer
freshwater locales, and get salt from the blood of prey. Since most
non-predatorial mammals need salt, saltwater provides access to it
along a long shore, hard for predator to control access. Homo owned the
sand buffer between the forest-savanna and the sea. Nothing but sand
and pebbles, really, little grows there.

.

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