Re: Body Hair Loss in Aquatic Mammals
Phillip Bigelow (n8010095@cc.wwu.edu)
14 Oct 1995 14:27:14 -0700
pnich@globalone.net (Phil Nicholls) writes:
(much snipped)...
>Neither of these is true of early hominids, whose body weighs are
>currently estimated at between 25-50kg. There are two species of
>Odontoceti (toothed whales) with body sizes that small and they have
>very fusiform bodies. Even in tropical waters a primate with a body
>size of between 25-50kg would have found aquatic life energetically
>expensive.
I am glad to see that Pet Wheeler has also noted the thermal problems with
a small hairless primate in an aquatic environment. I have noted these
potential problems for a couple years.
Unfortunately, both Wheeler and you have jumped the gun a bit as far as
being certain about the thermic problems. As I have already noted on
another thread (as well as posting a large note on this same topic last
year), the experiments haven't been done, and neither have any extrapolation
modelling by computer (necessary in this case, because we have to assume a
lot about the characters of the aquatic ape).
Phil, I have posted a methodology on a way to get hard numbers from
Wheeler's and my objections (See my posts in the thread "AAT:A method to
falsify). It may get you up to speed on things, and besides, I would like
to get some feed-back on how the experiments/computer modelling can be
improved.
<pb>
|