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_AAT
_Most authorities on Human Evolution agree that the last common
ancestor of Chimpanzees, Gorillas and Human Beings lived in Africa at
the most 8 million years ago. There is much agreement too that it was
a change to a drier climate in East Africa that began to lead the
ancestors of hominids down a different evolutionary path from other
apes.

Clearly something happened to our ancestors that was very [1]different
from their in that time.

For most of the last century the big assumption has been that this
climatic change caused hominids to move to a drier, more open, grassy
habitat. It is not clear how anyone could have arrived at the
conclusion that apes would have ventured out onto alien, dry, open
grassland when they could have stayed in smaller concentrations of
woodland by rivers and lakes but wherever the idea came from
originally, it seems to have become firmly stuck.

There is  an alternative view, curiously overlooked, that contests
this assumption. The so-called Aquatic Ape Hypothesis (AAH) has many
different forms and proponents, but basically argues that the best way
of explaining many human features is to see them as aquatic not
savannah adaptations.

There is a large degree of controversy surrounding the AAH. Many
anthropologists disagree with it entirely and even its proponents
differ greatly in how perceive the aquatic phase happened.

One of the most popular new ways of looking at evolution is the study
of cladistics, where evolutionary species are organised into clades
(kind-of like family trees) based on traits that are derived or
conserved. Curiously this technique does not seem to have been used
when considering the AAH. [2]Here, I make a very basic start.

Here some of the theories are reviewed and I put forward my own
[3]Aquatic Hybrid Ape Hypothesis for public scrutiny.

_Wading origin for Bipedalism
_In particular I think that one of the strongest arguments for the AAH
is its explanation of bipedalism. The idea that it began in apes that
were adapted to wading is still not very popular and is hardly
mentioned even as a possibility in orthodox text books. But I think
this will change. The evidence for it is growing all the time (see my
[4]article here or my MSc [5]thesis Bipedal Wading in Hominoidae Past
and Present). Also some big names are beginning to think

the same way. Chris Stringer wrote as much in a student's guide to
human evolution in [6]1976 and stated the same thing in a public
[7]question at Birkbeck College at the end of 2000. Also in the recent
BBC documentary "Gorilla" David Attenborough, narrating whilst footage
of Western Lowland Gorillas were wading bipedally across stretches of
water asked "was this how we first started walking?"

_Alister Hardy
_Here you'll find a short biography about the person most people
credit with the theory: [8]Sir Alister Hardy FRS. Although he was not
the first to publish material claiming a more aquatic past for humans
(Max [9]Westenhöfer, a German scientist did that in 1942, in Berlin)
he was the first to do so in the English language. Neither Hardy nor
Westenhöffer knew of each other's ideas when they published but Hardy
claims to have first thought of the idea back in 1930. Hardy wrote
about the theory first in March 1960 in New Scientist. You can read
the actual article for yourself [10]here.

_Valkenburg Conference_
One of the myths surrounding the AAH is that is has been dismissed or
refuted by the academic establishment. If anyone ever infers this they
are probably referring to the Valkenburg conference which was held in
the Dutch town of that name in 1987. The published proceedings from it
: [11]The Aquatic Ape: Fact or Fiction remain the only serious
academic work taking the theory seriously in 42 years. The conference
concluded against the AAH but judge for yourself why you think that
was.

_Biochemical/Dietary Evidence_
Another body of workers who are advocates of a more aquatic past for
our ancestors than the prevailing view are those biochemists and
dieticians who are convinced that the modern human need for certain
essential fatty acids (EFA), especially in brain growth is evidence
that hominids must have evolved in places rich in those substances.
Two that seem to be particularly important, Docosahexanoic Acid (DHA)
and Arachidonic Acid (AA), are found most commonly in aquatic foods.
The arguments of the people promoting this theory are shown [12]here.
[13][LINK] [14][LINK] [15][LINK] [16][LINK] [17][LINK] [18][LINK] 

[19][LINK] [20][LINK] [21][LINK] [22][LINK] [23][LINK] 

References

1. http://www.riverapes.com/AHAH/ComparativeBiology/ChimpsandHumans.htm
2. http://www.riverapes.com/AHAH/ComparativeBiology/derived_aquatic_traits.htm
3. http://www.riverapes.com/AHAH/Index.htm
4. http://www.riverapes.com/AAH/AATheories/Wading/why_did_we_start_walking.htm
5. http://www.riverapes.com/Me/Work/BipedalismThesis.htm
6. http://www.riverapes.com/HEvol/references.htm#Stringer 1976
7. http://www.riverapes.com/AAH/AATheories/Wading/HowAboutWading.htm
8. http://www.riverapes.com/AAH/Hardy/Hardy.htm
9. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/files/Max-WestenhEUR%F6fer.htm
10. http://www.riverapes.com/AAH/Hardy/HardyPage1.htm
11. http://www.riverapes.com/AAH/FoF/FactOrFiction.htm
12. http://www.riverapes.com/AAH/EFA
13. http://www.riverapes.com/AHAH/ComparativeBiology/ChimpsandHumans.htm
14. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/files/Max-WestenhEUR%F6fer.htm
15. http://www.riverapes.com/AAH/Hardy/Hardy.htm
16. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/files/Elaine-Morgan.htm
17. http://www.riverapes.com/AAH/EFA/EFA.htm
18. http://www.riverapes.com/AAH/MV/Verhaegen.htm
19. http://www.riverapes.com/AHAH/ComparativeBiology/derived_aquatic_traits.htm
20. http://www.riverapes.com/AAH/FoF/FactOrFiction.htm
21. http://www.riverapes.com/AAH/AATheories/Wading/why_did_we_start_walking.htm
22. http://www.riverapes.com/AHAH/Index.htm
23. http://www.riverapes.com/AAH/Arguments/index.htm