And you agree, of course, like every sensible scientist…

Hi Jim, yes, I’ve seen this. 🙁 Prof.Roberts apparently hasn’t even listened to the radio programmes, which provided several recent arguments (vernix caseosa, squalene, shell engravings, etc.) that our ancestors were at least waterside (in fact, H.erectus’ pachyostosis, ear exostoses, external nose, brain expansion etc. show they were littoral: frequently *diving* in shallow water). Roberts’ comments are irrelevant & outdated, and her savanna ideas are just-so anthropocentrisms: “The nowadays popular ideas about Pleistocene human ancestors running in open plains (‘endurance running’, ‘dogged pursuit of swifter animals’, ‘born to run’, ‘le singe coureur’, ‘Savannahstan’) are among the worst scientific hypotheses ever proposed. The surprising frequency and diversity of foot problems (e.g. hammertoes, hallux valgus and bunions, ingrown nails, heelspurs, athlete’s feet, corns and calluses – some of these due to wearing shoes) and the need to protect our feet with shoes prove that human feet are not made in the first place for running. Moreover, humans are physiologically ill-adapted to dry open milieus: “We have a water- and sodium-wasting cooling system of abundant sweat glands, totally unfit for a dry environment. Our maximal urine concentration is much too low for a savanna-dwelling mammal. We need much more water than other primates, and have to drink more often than savanna inhabitants, yet we cannot drink large quantities at a time” (Verhaegen 1987). This does not imply to say that human ancestors or relatives never lived on savannas, only that if they did, it was at the wetlands and rivers there. Apparently we evolved running – only lately, and only about half as fast as equids, bovids, felids or canids, and even slower than arboreal primates – *in spite of* our broad build, short toes and plantigrade feet, profuse sweating, and large subcutaneous fat tissues (a burden of >10 kg in most people). Of course, healthy adult men can sometimes outrun ungulates (the usual ‘argument’ of conventional paleo-anthropologists) and provide a limited part of the calories for the group, but this dogged pursuit is largely confined to a few inland populations in East Africa today, is derived and probably very recent (less than a few thousands of years): it requires a rather specialized technology with water bags, weapons and poisons.” (Hum.Evol.28:237-266, 2013).

https://theconversation.com/sorry-david-attenborough-we-didnt-evolve-from-aquatic-apes-heres-why-65570

It’s a merciless attack on the same old straw men.

rjb

Frank, my article “The aquatic ape evolves: common misconceptions and unproven assumptions about the so-called Aquatic Ape Hypothesis” (Hum.Evol.28:237-266, 2013) doesn’t propose the “basic AAH findings as something new”, on the contrary: it argues that many pro-AAH as well as anti-AAH students have a lot of unproven preassumptions & misconceptions on what they believe “AAH” is. In fact, the littoral theory (or “coastal dispersal model”, S.Munro 2010) is not about something that happened >6 Ma as Elaine Morgan thought (her “AAH”), it’s not about apes (aquatic or not), nor about australopiths, but about early-Pleistocene Homo following African & Eurasian coasts.
The conventional paleo-anthropological view is that human ancestors became bipedal by moving from the forests to the plains (schematically: ape=>human = forest=>plain = 4-legged=>bipedal). This is biologically & physiologically unlikely, e.g. primates that move from forest to plain become more quadrupedal, not less (“the baboon paradox”); sweating requires salt & water (both scarce in arid grasslands); etc.
An account of human evolution which discusses “bipedality” in arboreal & terrestrial but not shallow-aquatic settings is incomplete. In fact, comparative, paleo-environmental & other data show:
(1) Plio-Pleistocene australopithecines (fossil hominids (vs pongids), i.e. relatives of Pan-Homo-Gorilla) were typically swamp forest & wetland species (e.g. K.Reed 1997 JHE). The combination of water + trees parsimoniously explains the remarkable combination of bipedality (e.g. for wading) + curved hand-bones (for vertical climbing) in australopiths (google “aquarboreal”). Human fetuses never have hand-like feet, but prenatal African apes have more humanlike feet (e.g. with longer & adducted big toes) which later become more hand-like (e.g. C.Coon 1954). This suggests Pan & Gorilla had more bipedal ancestors (e.g. parttime wading for papyrus, frogbit, waterlilies etc.), google e.g. “bonobo wading” or “gorilla bai”.
(2) Our Pleistocene ancestors (archaic Homo spp) did not disperse intercontinentally walking or running over the open grasslands, but simply followed African & Eurasian coasts & rivers (“coastal dispersal model”, S.Munro 2010), walking & wading bipedally & parttime diving for waterside, littoral & shallow-aquatic foods (which are richest in brain-specific nutrients such as DHA, e.g. S.Cunnane 2005 “Survival of the fattest”), even colonizing islands overseas (no need to suppose boats or rafts): Flores, Crete, Cyprus etc.
Homo’s diet included animal (e.g. shellfish opened with hard tools, waterside carcasses of herbivores & marine mammals, salmon & other fish) as well as plant foods (e.g. traces of waterlily roots in neanderthal dental calculus & of cattails on their tools).
Homo’s brain enlargement (e.g. DHA) & parttime shallow diving (which requires breathing control) were preadaptive to human spoken language.

Wrangham’s delta hypothesis is based on our work (TREE), and Sarmiento usu.knows very well what he’s talking about, we’ve also discussed it, but whatever, apparently, you still don’t get what we’re saying, I don’t “use” australopiths, we simply have to look at them in their own way, instead of confusing them withou our ancestors, it’s not difficult at all, but you have to get rid of your preconceptions:
– Plio-Pleistocene australopiths lived in swamp forests & wetlands (this has nothing to do with Homo, e.g. please read Yohn cs 2005 PLoS: our direct ancestors might have been absent from Africa between at least 4 & 3 Ma, possibly they lived then in S.Asian coastal forests),
– Pleistocene Homo dispersed along coasts & rivers.
For a summary of my view, see “The aquatic ape evolves: common misconceptions and unproven assumptions about the so-called Aquatic Ape Hypothesis” Hum.Evol.28:237-266, 2013, google researchGate marc verhaegen.