Re: First Family and AAT
Alex Duncan (aduncan@mail.utexas.edu)
4 Oct 1995 00:34:34 GMT
In article <hubey.812351061@pegasus.montclair.edu> H. M. Hubey,
hubey@pegasus.montclair.edu writes:
>I (presumably along with the AAT proponents) was referring to the effect
>of staying in this aquatic environment over a long period of time.
>That is, those apes with longer legs and more upright postures would
>have more chances of survival and hence producing others like
>themselves.
To the best of anyone's knowledge, every tetrapod that ever adopted an
aquatic existence was a quadruped when it began its aquatic foray (w/ the
exception of aquatic birds). They all remained quadrupeds or began to
converge on fish in overall body shape and locomotion. Why would the
early aquatic hominid have been any different? In other words, if
becoming a biped is such a wonderful adaptation to an aquatic existence,
why aren't polar bears, walruses, alligators, mososaurs and otters all
bipedal?
Alex Duncan
Dept. of Anthropology
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX 78712-1086
512-471-4206
aduncan@mail.utexas.edu
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