reconcile waterside & savanna ideas?

Some AATers want to reconcile waterside & savanna ideas, but we can't
reconcile them. Apes as well as humans are very unlike typical savanna
mammals: human or ape ancestors never lived in dry hot places (only a few
recent human populations in Africa or Australia with water containers,
weapons & technology have recently began to live in dry savanna).
Dart thought that when he had found the Taung fossil in the Kalahari, these
dry & hot places had made us to what we are (he didn't know that Taung was
wetter & forested when africanus lived there). This idea was picked up
later, and all evidence was coloured by it: naked to sweat better, SC fat to
keep cool at night etc. Some ostrich shells near hominid remains reinforced
this savanna thinking, but the numerous wading birds & edible shellfish in
Homo sites were "forgotten". In fact, there's no objective evidence that
human or ape ancestors ever dwelt in dry savannas, to the contrary: their &
our physiology is totally unfit for water-poor regions. The Homo remains
that are found in savannas were always near rivers or lakes. The majority
of Homo remains come from Java, Flores, Europe, Georgia, Turkana, not from
savannas. When Homo dispersed over the Old World this no doubt happened
along the coasts & from there inland along rivers & lakes (incl.Turkana
etc.). Many of these coasts are now tens of metres below the present sea
level.

AAT sensu stricto (littoral Homo) is about Homo (big brain, external nose
etc.), not about apes or australopiths (small brains, airsacs, curved
phalanges, short legs etc.).
The early primates were arboreal, Homo much later was littoral. Since
evolution is gradual, the intermediate step must have included both trees &
water (google "aquarboreal", aqua=water, arbor=tree). The Mio-Pliocene was
hotter & wetter than today, and in the wettest & hottest places today we
still find the highest concentrations of apes: in flooded forest (Suaq
orangs, Ndoki gorillas etc.). Many lowland gorillas spend a few hours per
day in forest swamps feeding on aquatic herbs & sedges.
The early apes (Afropithecus, Morotopithecus) c 17 Ma crossed the Tethys Sea
to Eurasia, and several fossils are found in coastal forests (eg,
Heliopithecus, Austracopitheucs, Oreopithecus). Possibly these early apes
lived in mangrove/coastal forests, from where they invaded the tropical
forests along the swamps & waterways (Dryopithecus, Lufengpithecus, Orrorin,
Sahelanthropus, many australopiths).
Homo during the Pleistocene took a different way: with the Ice Ages the sea
level dropped, vaste tree-poor continental shelves arose with likely large
amounts of shell-& crayfish. No wonder some omnivorous & durophagous (early
apes were thick-enameled), dextrous & tool-using apes (great apes make & use
tools) who used to live in flooded/mangrove/swamp forests invaded these
areas, they learnt to wade, beach-comb & dive for littoral & waterside foods
(shellfish but also turtle, eggs, coconuts, crabs, stranded whales, bovids
drowned during the trek etc.). The fossil & archeological record confirms
this scenario (Gibraltar, Eritra, Dungo V Baia Farta, Mojokerto etc.) and
nowhere contradicts it.
I guess that during colder times (glacials) our Homo ancestors & relatives
stayed mostly at the coasts (few fossils are found), but during warmer times
(interglacials & present postglacial) they also left the sea along the
rivers (more fossils & tools are found).

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Relevant Pages

  • savanna nonsense (Re: Only idiots believe that humans evolved snorkel noses to run after gazelles
    ... AAT sensu stricto amphibious ancestors theory (on Homo). ... early apes), and once swimming ancestors, and that our ... IIRC, the paper said rudolfensis (Africa) might ... > ancestors living in savanna and plains, ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: reconcile waterside & savanna ideas?
    ... Some AATers want to reconcile waterside & savanna ideas, ... Homo sites were "forgotten". ... still find the highest concentrations of apes: ... lived in mangrove/coastal forests, from where they invaded the tropical ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: reconcile waterside & savanna ideas?
    ... Some AATers want to reconcile waterside & savanna ideas, ... Homo sites were "forgotten". ... still find the highest concentrations of apes: ... lived in mangrove/coastal forests, from where they invaded the tropical ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: reconcile waterside & savanna ideas?
    ... Apes as well as humans are very unlike typical savanna ... weapons & technology have recently began to live in dry savanna). ... Homo sites were "forgotten". ... Heliopithecus, Austracopitheucs, Oreopithecus). ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: reconcile waterside & savanna ideas?
    ... weapons & technology have recently began to live in dry savanna). ... Homo sites were "forgotten". ... still find the highest concentrations of apes: ... lived in mangrove/coastal forests, from where they invaded the tropical ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)