by Chris Bodenner
I Heart Chaos highlights a video of TED's Elaine Morgan discussing the aquatic ape hypothesis of human evolution. Here's the gist:
As compared to the great apes, their nearest living relatives, humans exhibit many significant differences in anatomy and physiology, including bipedalism,[1] almost hairless skin like some marine mammals,[2] hair growth patterns following water flow-lines,[3] increased subcutaneous fat for insulation,[4][5] descended larynx,[3][6] vestigial webbing between the fingers,[7] vernix caseosa,[3] a hooded nose, muscular nostril aperture control and the philtrum preventing water from entering the nostrils,[3] voluntary breath control like marine mammals and birds,[3] and greasy skin with an abundance of sebaceous glands, which can be interpreted as a waterproofing device.[8]
IHC adds:
The problem is that beaches are the worst possible places for fossils to form, so no matter how much it makes sense, all we have to go on is phenotypal evidence, so it's one of those things that will probably always remain theoretical until we invent time travel.
Here's Elaine: