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Re: more on aquatic elephants
jamesb@hgu.mrc.ac.uk
10 Nov 1995 14:53:40 GMT
Alex Duncan <aduncan@mail.utexas.edu> wrote:
Humans have
>a lot of subcutaneous fat because we eat a lot. You'll see the same
>thing in a lot of mammals in zoos, especially the carnivores, orangutans
>and gorillas.
>
Do !Kung people overeat and get fat? And, more importantly, how fat are
their babies?
>To get back to the elephant thing -- the AAT position on elephants is
>that they have aquatic ancestors. Why? Because the features that
>elephants and humans have in common can then be used to argue that humans
>also have aquatic ancestors (after all, if humans have these features
>because we evolved in an aquatic environment, then that must be why
>elephants have them). The problem is that you're assuming what you're
>trying to prove. It is tautalogical, and the very lamest excuse for
>logic.
>
What's your explanation of the convoluted vaginal pathway of elephants
then? To copulate, the male elephant has to sit down and the female
lowers itself onto the male's lap. I think this indicates that elephant's
ancesters must have copulated face-to-face at one point. I doubt they had
bipedal ancesters, and that fact that the human vagina has swung forward
is explained as a consequence of bipedalism. How would you explain this?
James Borrett.
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