Sometimes a picture is worth thousands of words

[rjaypeters]

I'm a bit scared.

The Birds!

[choff]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABFJmjlpVRI

[CaptainBeowulf]

I think the aquatic ape theory might be partially correct, but I didn't feel like going into it. It's another reason why I think eating seafood may have been a major factor in human brain development before cooking other types of meat. Humans may have preferred to live near coastlines, and to spend part of the time in the water, and would therefore have eaten seafoods for millions of years.

[CaptainBeowulf]

To follow up my last post, recent studies of fossils such as Orrorin Tugenensis have suggested that some ape species, including human ancestors, may have developed bipedalism while still living mainly in trees.

Also, various explanations are possible for human hair patterns. For instance, we logically kept relatively thick hair on the top of our heads. This seems important for thermoregulation - the hair stops the exposed head, the topmost part of the body on a bipedal animal - from being directly exposed to intense sunlight.

So you don't need to invoke full blown aquatic ape theory... but humans do seem better adapted to water than other apes... suggesting that there was a survival advantage to being at home in the water for extended periods of time.