Humans may have gone through a semi aquatic phase in evolution

[Chad32]

I got to thinking how it might be nice if I had enough body hair to not need to put on sunscreen before spending the day on the lake. I also got to wondering why people seem to like water so much. Many people like to swim, even though water isn't exactly our natural element.

I looked it up, and apparently some people theorize that Humans went through a semi aquatic phase, like how whales and such don't have much hair. Also people may have selected for less hair due to having fewer parasites. It's kind of interesting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/19/scienc...-ways.html

[MJ the Skeptical]

Wonder if we could have had gills too. Maybe Waterworld was an accurate movie after all...

[CapnAwesome]

Pretty sure the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis is pretty much the Anthropological version of pseudo science.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquatic_ape...#Reception

[The Grand Nudger]

Unfortunately, the reason that we have the kind of hair that we do (it covers just about every inch of us) has to do with the way a gene codes for keratin proteins in our species. Same reason we don't have talons or claws (though in rare cases, we suffer from a disorder called Pachyonychia Congenita-which pretty much does grow claws). We're covered in hair, you just don't notice it because of it's structure.

We are less hairy than other apes (but surprisingly more hairy here and there). The closest to us -in the hair dept as in so much else- being chimps. Our LCA apparently set this particular pattern in motion and unless they're theorizing a pre lca water ape (and where do we see this express itself in chimps, if so?) then meh.

[Jenny A]

The hypothesis has been around a while. The idea was first proposed in 1940 by by German pathologist Max Westenhöfer and then again by English marine biologist Alister Hardy in 1960. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquatic_ape_hypothesis It rung a bell for me because I read Elaine Morgan's, The Aquatic Ape, published in the popular press in 1999.

[ignoramus]

My pet theory is that we were visited long ago by visitors.
They manipulated the genetic structure of eg: chimps to allow for the potential of greater intelligence.
Maybe they are hoping that one day we can "phone home".
Or likewise they inserted their own genetics to survive themselves in one way/shape or form.

Yes, a little silly and romantic but boy does it beat the "goddidit" proposal.
And there's no need to believe in magic.