Posted by Mike Field on September 07, 2004 at 12:30:50 from 203.166.84.232 user mikefield.
In Reply to: Re: The British Beach Holiday posted by Mike Field on September 06, 2004 at 13:14:13:
Dave's having a spot of trouble getting onto the board at the moment, and he's asked me to post this thesis. He said in an email, "Yes, would you please quote me to Tarboard about the aquatic primate theory? It was first postulated by Professor Sir Alister Hardy, F.R.S., in the New Scientist in 1960. I first read of it in Elaine Morgan's thoughtful book, "The Descent of Woman."
"I'm one of those who subscribe to the theory that at one stage of our evolution we were a water dwelling primate. This was when we:
[a] lost the crouching stance retained by chimps
[b] lost most of our fur, as have hippos, pigs, seals, and heffalumps
[c] gained a subcutaneous fat layer, just like the above-mentioned animals
[d] lost the opposing thumb on our feet and now have flipper-shaped feet.
I think that it's almost natural that we should be hydrophilic."
So there you are. Atavism rules.
We clearly need to be reading more than just AR, much as we all love him. (A A Milne, at the very least -- heffalumps?)