Re: The Aquatic Adaptation of the Human Ear
David Froehlich (eohippus@moe.cc.utexas.edu)
Wed, 11 Oct 1995 16:11:55 -0500
On 11 Oct 1995, Thomas Clarke wrote:
> In article <Pine.OSF.3.91.951007171008.28997B-100000@curly.cc.utexas.edu>
> writes:
>
> > This is not AAS and in fact it tells us nothing about the development of
> > bipedality (which is what putatively AAS was trying to do. It is quite
> > possible that some animals lived in a litoral environment. Some primates
> > do it today.
>
> Great! Would you care to speculate about the role of open bodies
> of water in the transition from Miocene arboreal ape to bipedal hominid?
>
I argue against the AAS not because it is not possible, virtually
anything is possible. I argue against it because it posits a non
parsimonious explanation. We know where the Miocene apes have been found
(the forest), we know where the australopithecines have been found
(fluvial deposits that indicate a mosaic enviroment). Why is an
intermediate aquatic phase necessary (since there is absolutely no fossil
evidence, even ask Hubey). The arguement evolves from a functional
premise that bipedality is an extremely difficult locomotor style to
attain (an arguement that I do not agree with). The best scientific test
of this would be to examine the differences in locomotor ability in all
of the extant anthropoids (funny thing, this has actually been done, look
at the work from Stony Brook). I am not completely competent to argue
for this data, but what I have read has been convincing.
David J. Froehlich Phone: 512-471-6088
Vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory Fax: 512-471-5973
J.J. Pickle Research Campus
The University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712
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