Common misconceptions and unproven assumptions about the aquatic ape theory

A Guest Post by Marc Verhaegen
*2013 m_verhaegen@skynet.be

It is often assumed that Alister Hardy’s and Elaine Morgan’s aquatic ape theory (AAT) suggests that more than 5 Ma (million years ago) there was a semi-aquatic phase in our past (explaining e.g. human fur loss, fatness and upright bipedalism), which was followed by a savanna phase on the African plains. In 2011, AAT proponents published an eBook, Was Man more aquatic in the past?, which showed a rather different picture of AAT. Here I very briefly describe my view of ape and human evolution (for details and references, see my publications at the end of this article).

The Homo-Pan last common ancestor (LCA)

My 1994 paper concluded:
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