Re: YET another aquatic ape post
Sir CPU (sircpu@aol.com)
24 Jan 1995 11:28:47 -0500
-The fact that a (human) baby - rich in fat - can float on its back
-is not really proof of swimming ability. babies do have several
-motor reflex actions that resemble walking and crawling but
-are not coordinated enough or strong enough for ground transport,
>From what I read in Desmond Morris' book "Manwatching", the baby's motor
actions are "coordinated" enough to propel the baby in a specific
direction. That is swimming. They float on their backs and kick their
legs and arms and actually move in a direction. Not bad for a newborn.
So, it would appear that there is an innate ability to swim that appears
in humans before the ability to walk, then mysteriously disappears at
approximately four months of age. I find this fasinating, especially
because most savanna creatures have the ablity to run almost immediatly at
birth, in order to escape from predators.
But, of course, this evidence is not "hard" fossil evidence so you
anthropologists can ignore it.
Troy Kelley.
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