Re: Aquatic ape theory

pete (VINCENT@REG.TRIUMF.CA)
5 Oct 1995 08:49:44 GMT

Bill Burnett (bbur@wpo.nerc.ac.uk) sez:
`In article <44o6lj$e86@nntp.ucs.ubc.ca> VINCENT@REG.TRIUMF.CA (pete) writes:

`>Hmm, I don't know why you would say this. Any creature's hearing
`>is much better under water, because of the way sound travels
`>through water. I've never noticed any difficulty hearing and
`>locating sounds underwater.

`>[...]

`Are you SURE you can LOCATE sounds easily? Speaking as a dedicated
`recreational scuba and free diver, I certainly can't locate sounds
`underwater, and I'm not unusual in this regard, most people can't. Sure, I
`can hear them, but direction finding is very difficult... this is supposedly a
`consequence of sound travelling much faster through water hence the time
`differential between sounds reaching either ear is insufficient for a stereo
`image (or so I'm told...)

`[...]

Hmm. This may be due to the fact that I retain good high frequency
hearing. I know I can hear things like bad fluorescent tubes and
howling video monitors that are painful to me, while most other
people hear nothing. Now I think about it, it's definitely the
higher frequencies of sound I tune into while locating a sound
underwater. I think I would have trouble getting it better
than up/down/left/right/ahead/behind if the sound didn't have
some components above 10kHz. I've never really thought about
it a lot. I'll have to do some experiments and see.

And if you consider the problems some
`people have in equalising the pressure in their ears while diving I think we
`can safely say that TODAY'S human ear is NOT adapted for diving... (I make
`no claims for a supposed AA ear.)

But that's not a problem for free diving to depths less than 25 feet
is it? And I doubt anyone would propose a hythetical aquatic ancestor
was doing deeper than that.

--

==========================================================================

    vincent@triumf.ca   <== faster       %    Pete Vincent

    vincent@freenet.vancouver.bc.ca      % Disclaimer: all I know I

                                         % learned from reading Usenet.