Comments on: My critique of Morgan’s Aquatic Ape TED talk https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/05/my-critique-of-morgans-aquatic/ Tue, 03 Apr 2018 23:57:42 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.8 By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/05/my-critique-of-morgans-aquatic/#comment-578942 Tue, 03 Apr 2018 23:57:42 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/05/my-critique-of-morgans-aquatic/#comment-578942 In reply to Ben Malick.

The vast majority of hominin fossils are found nowhere near a body of water more than a few inches deep.

]]> By: Ben Malick https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/05/my-critique-of-morgans-aquatic/#comment-578920 Tue, 03 Apr 2018 21:59:22 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/05/my-critique-of-morgans-aquatic/#comment-578920 I find this article/comment section to be an echo chamber of pompous nay-sayers who are using every fallacy in the book to poo-poo a theory which rings true when you follow natural intuition and aren’t bogged down by bias. I would address each point you’ve made, along with some of the inane points listed by others, which they’ve brought over from other forums. The amount of contempt and ridicule present in your reactions says it all.
If any single person here had made a sound valid point countering on of Morgan’s, I’d be willing to rethink my position. But I can dismantle every single thing you pseudo-intellects have said, and I’m not impressed in the least in your reasoning abilities. Shame on all of you.

]]> By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/05/my-critique-of-morgans-aquatic/#comment-541243 Mon, 28 May 2012 20:42:02 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/05/my-critique-of-morgans-aquatic/#comment-541243 The ATT is probably best represented by its modern proponent:

http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/05/elaine-morgan-on-the-aquatic-a/

In which Elaine Morgan specifies that the ATT addresses the separation between the chimp and human lineage.

I’m not sure what these later hominids have to do with this.

]]> By: marc verhaegen https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/05/my-critique-of-morgans-aquatic/#comment-541242 Mon, 28 May 2012 18:35:25 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/05/my-critique-of-morgans-aquatic/#comment-541242 There are some recent publications on the Littoral Theory (commonly known as AAT) that Pleistocene Homo populations colonised different continents & island (even Flores >19 km oversea >800 ka) along the coasts & from there inland along the rivers, where they collected aquatic & waterside foods, including shellfish, seaweeds, ungulates drowned or caught in mud or shallow water, stranded whales, cattails, cane etc., eg,
– M Vaneechoutte, A Kuliukas, M Verhaegen eds 2011 ebook Bentham Sci Publ (with contributions of prof.Tobias, Elaine Morgan, Chak above, myself etc.) “Was Man More Aquatic in the Past? Fifty Years after Alister Hardy: Waterside Hypotheses of Human Evolution”
– M Verhaegen & S Munro 2011 HOMO, J compar hum Biol 62:237-247 “Pachyosteosclerosis suggests archaic Homo frequently collected sessile littoral foods”
For more info, please google “econiche homo” “aquarboreal” “pachyosteosclerosis” or send me an email.

]]> By: Chak https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/05/my-critique-of-morgans-aquatic/#comment-541241 Mon, 26 Apr 2010 12:58:49 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/05/my-critique-of-morgans-aquatic/#comment-541241 Darren: see Carsten Niemitz. Not exactly AAT, but very similar in respect to bipedalism.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/f3267454407k1402/fulltext.html

]]> By: Darren https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/05/my-critique-of-morgans-aquatic/#comment-541240 Sat, 17 Apr 2010 14:07:04 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/05/my-critique-of-morgans-aquatic/#comment-541240 Is there any, current, research on the this theory?

]]> By: ianam https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/05/my-critique-of-morgans-aquatic/#comment-541239 Thu, 25 Mar 2010 18:11:23 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/05/my-critique-of-morgans-aquatic/#comment-541239 She lies about Dennett, who wrote in DDI “My point in raising the aquatic-ape theory is not to defend it against the establishment view”, and goes on to say that the latter is “every bit as speculative” and “no better confirmed” than the former.

I think he would be appalled to hear her grossly dishonest anti-scientific polemic.

]]> By: Chak https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/05/my-critique-of-morgans-aquatic/#comment-541238 Fri, 19 Mar 2010 05:24:27 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/05/my-critique-of-morgans-aquatic/#comment-541238 Greg: Thanks for your review! I think it’s thoughtful and balanced.
Just one thing — AAT is already blended with Darwin, or say it’s based on evolution (natural selection, convergent evolution, environmental adaptation) from the very beginning.

cromercrox: All your dog and other land mammals can do is doggy paddle. But humans can also do breast stroke, front crawl, apnea free-diving… you name it. That’s the big difference.
If you say it’s nothing special, try teach a chimpanzee (or your dog) to do a front crawl. Its parallel shoulder blades, short legs, and poor breath control will make sure a total failure.

Chak

]]> By: Merman https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/05/my-critique-of-morgans-aquatic/#comment-541237 Mon, 11 Jan 2010 22:30:36 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/05/my-critique-of-morgans-aquatic/#comment-541237 Hi, sorry for the necromancy, but could one of you explain why my fingers are mildly webbed?

Actually I noticed none of you rebutted her comments about salt excretion or sex organs. Is it a coincidence that both elephants and humans artificially supplement salt? Isn’t sex unusually awkward for humans unless we hop in a jacuzzi? What happens if a primate gives birth in water?

As a layperson, I inferred a short period in a small area. Why are most of you referring to the idea of a long period of ocean-swimming apes? Couldn’t the location have been an area like a primitive Dead Sea? Are rain-forest natives who dive for fish in pools not aquatic?

]]> By: Klausi https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/05/my-critique-of-morgans-aquatic/#comment-541236 Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:14:44 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/05/my-critique-of-morgans-aquatic/#comment-541236 Hi,
“how come we can’t swim for shit compared to any other swimming thing”
That we can’t must interest this guy who swam from England to France in under 7 hours: http://www.petarstoychev.com/en/index.php
Or this guy who breath-hold dove to 88 m, without fins: http://www.verticalblue.net/
Maybe most people can’t swim for shit as a consequence of their industrialized sedentary life-style?

I am not convinced that we had an amphibian stage in our evolution. I do however think that this is interesting scientific speculation, and I think it is unfair to group it with crackpotisms like creationism or global warming denial, as many people here seem to do.

Best,
Klaus

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