Re: AAT:A method to falsify

David L Burkhead (r3dlb1@dax.cc.uakron.edu)
6 Oct 1995 03:52:46 GMT

In article <hubey.812915188@pegasus.montclair.edu> hubey@pegasus.montclair.edu (H. M. Hubey) writes:
>n8010095@cc.wwu.edu (Phillip Bigelow) writes:
>
>> The question to ask is: "Is it even physiologically possible for a small,
>>hairless hominid to be a ubiquitous-wader/occassional-swimmer, and not have
>>problems with hypothermia?"
>
>No, or yes.
>
>It would depend on the temperature of the water.

Sorry, but when I took SCUBA training, one of the things we
learned is that there is _no such thing_ as "warm water diving." Even
tropical surface waters cause chills, exhaustion, and hypothermia in a
few hours. The human body shows _no_ adaptation to deal with the kind
of long-term immersion that AAH would require.

This is in the _warmest_ of waters. It only gets worse from
there. Well, there is one possible exception. If the aquatic ape
spent its time in a "hot spring" instead of lake or ocean water.
However such an environment would not support enough of a population
of hominid-sized creatures to have been sustainable.

David L. Burkhead
r3dlb1@dax.cc.uakron.edu
d.l.burk@ix.netcom.com

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