Re: Bipedalism and other factors and AAT
Pat Dooley (patdooley@aol.com)
26 Jun 1995 22:41:37 -0400
There has beemn some little debate on this forum about the salt tolerance
of crocodiles, the predation of same upon AA, etc. etc.
1) At least one species of Crocodile found in Northern Australia is fully
salt
tolerant. They can, and do, take humans swimming in open water. (These
are big beasts, and fierce.)
2) Aboriginals make extensive use of water resources in the same areas
as salt water crocodiles without suffering from population destroying
predation. They know when and where it is safe to enter the water
and where not to. White toursists are the usual victims in the rare
cases
where a human is taken, usually because they ignore the signs telling
them to beware of crocodiles.
Primates in the chimpanzee class are usually good at figuring out where
danger lies, be it lions, leopards or crocodiles.
3) The argument that apes could not have adapted to an aquatic environment
because of sharks or crocodiles is bogus. Both predators have been
around
when many other mammal species made the transistion from land to
water.
The pioneers must have been pretty clumsy in the water during the
initial
stages of the transition, but they made it.
4) My understanding is that African crocodiles are not fully salt
tolerant. I also
believe that AAT proponents suggest the Sea of Afar as a likely site
for the
AA to evolve. Once this Sea was separated from the Indian Ocean/Red
Sea, it slowly evaporated over the course of a few milion years, just
as the
Red Sea is now doing. That implies increasing salinity and less
friendly
environment for crocodlies.
Pat Dooley
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