Why
are we the only members of the ape family who are hairless, walk upright, shed
tears and communicate by a verbal language? Why are human babies plump, when
the infants of other apes are skinny? Why is our sexual behaviour different? In
the first full discussion of a theory propounded by the late Sir Alister Hardy,
Elaine Morgan points to the dramatic similarities between ourselves and the aquatic
mammals - whales, dolphins, seals, sea otters - and argues that the only theory
of evolution which explains these satisfactorily is that we, alone among the
primates, have returned to life on land after a period of adaptation to an
aquatic environment. We were once aquatic apes.
Comments
Post a Comment