Re: Polar Bear Challenge for AAH opponents
Pat Dooley (patdooley@aol.com)
23 Dec 1994 23:37:58 -0500
> Pat Dooley <patdooley@delphi.com> writes:
>>>
>>> We're still waiting for an internally consistent explanation of
>>> bipedalism, hairlessness, eccrine sweating and sub-cutaneous
>>> fat from the AAH opponents.
>
>
> If you are asking us to "force" a tie-in between these characteristics,
why
>should we? You have to admit; these characters you refer to are all very
>disparate in nature. It is possible that they are all _discrete_ and
unrelated characters.
>
The problem is that each of the characteristics I cite are quite
uncharacteristic
of primates in general and terrestrial mammals in particular. Evolution
might have
given us a few oddities but not so many in so short a time-scale.
>If "internally-consistent explainations" are important to you, then
consider
>these "internally-consistent characters" that are found in modern humans,
>all of which point to a non-aquatic past. This list is an example of how
it
>is possible to tie together practically anything, and come to just about
any
>conclusion that you like. I just heaped these data together as I
>type this (off-the-cuff, so to speak):
>
>1) Humans have poor hearing under water.
My personal experience is that I can hear underwater but the sounds are
different. How does human underwater hearing compare with Bonobo
underwater hearing? How important is hearing to an animal foraging for
shell fish?
>
>2) Humans are quickly suseptable to hypothermia in both cool and warm
water.
That is something of a myth. For example, Korean and Japanese female
divers
spend up to four hours a day diving to depths of 80 ft. They spend less
time in
the water in Winter but still work in 10 C water. Lynn Cox swam Bering
strait
in 4 hours. The water temperature varies from 7 C to 3 C. She didnt wear
a wet suit
nor a protective lanolin covering. Admittedly, these performances are from
people who
spend a lot of time in the water, but that is precisely the point. How
many chimps can
match those human performances.
>
>3) Humans (and A. afarensis) have strong arches on the bottoms of their
feet, which aid in long-distance walking over land; this is useless
to aquatic
> animals.
Strong arches imply stiff feet - just like flippers. It may also be that
Ms AAT,
found them very useful on land - noone claimed she was 100% aquatic.
>
>4) Humans have poor eyesight under water.
When I was a kid, I used to dive into 6-9; of water to retrieve coins. I
could
see well enough to do that as could most other humans. How well does a
chimp
see underwater?
>
>5) Humans suffer from a pathologic condition, in which, when exposed to
cold
>water, there is a re-growth and thickening of bone around the ear canal.
>This condition is only found on terrestrial mammals. Aquatic mammals are
>fully adapted to cold water, and do not show this pathologic condition
when
>exposed to cold water.
Hey, give us a break. Firstly, the water we are talking about was mostly
near the equator. So cold water was not a major concern. Secondly, Ive
never claimed the AA was fully adapted to water. It didnt have long
enough
to evolve into a fully aquatic beast. Thirdly, how badly afficted are
those
diving women? Should they be called the deaf pearl divers?
>
> I don't like the idea of "lumping" character traits together in such a
way
>as I just did. The main reason that I am against it is that you start
out
<< deletion s>>
The traits I listed are readily derived by comparing humans with other
primates, particularly great apes. Give me some examples of major
adaptations that Ive ignored and that cant be explained by post-Lucy
evolutiuon (e.g. large brain).
Pat Dooley spending altogether too much time on this.
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