Do you believe in the aquatic ape hypothesis?

[Ronja]

The other problem is that many hominid fossils have been found far away from aquatic locations. The is a bias in fossil preservation in marine environments though, so one wonder why humanoids living near seaside caves were not fossilized more often.

My husband has the latest Scientific American with him, I think (at least I can't find it right now), but the article this discussion reminded me about is in some sort of "interactive" format on the Net, too. I'm gonna watch / read this with my morning coffee. It involves a cave by the seaside and hominid fossils, at least.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... d-humanity

[Ronja]

The other problem is that many hominid fossils have been found far away from aquatic locations. The is a bias in fossil preservation in marine environments though, so one wonder why humanoids living near seaside caves were not fossilized more often.

My husband has the latest Scientific American with him, I think (at least I can't find it right now), but the article this discussion reminded me about is in some sort of "interactive" format on the Net, too. I'm gonna watch / read this with my morning coffee. It involves a cave by the seaside and hominid fossils, at least.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... d-humanity

That interactive presentation is fascinating, but pretty heavy on bandwidth, so here's the text article: http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... d-humanity

* At some point between 195,000 and 123,000 years ago, the population size of Homo sapiens plummeted, thanks to cold, dry climate conditions that left much of our ancestors’ African homeland uninhabitable. Everyone alive today is descended from a group of people from a single region who survived this catastrophe.
* The southern coast of Africa would have been one of the few spots where humans could survive during this climate crisis, because it harbors an abundance of shellfish and edible plants.
* Excavations of a series of sites in this region have recovered items left behind by what may have been that progenitor population.
* The discoveries confirm the idea that advanced cognitive abilities evolved earlier than previously thought—and may have played a key role in the survival of the species during tough times.