aquatic ape hypothesis

The aquatic ape hypothesis (AAH), sometimes referred to as the aquatic ape theory (AAT), proposes that the ancestors of humans went through one or more periods of time living in more aquatic settings than modern non-human apes and that this history accounts for many of the characteristics of species in the Homo genus that are not seen in other primates, such as chimpanzees or gorillas. The AAH has been poorly received in mainstream paleoanthropology (Lowenstein & Zihlman 1980, Langdon 1997) but there are at least 20 published documents in the literature which promote various forms of it (e.g. Hardy 1960, Morgan 1982, 1994, 1997, Ellis 1986, 1993, 1995, Crawford et al 2000, Verhaegen et al 2002), several that offer statements of support for it (e.g. Tobias 1998, 2002, Cameron & Groves 2004:68) or against it (e.g. MacLarnon & Hewitt 1999, Jablonski 2006), and a few that give a balanced account of arguments both for and against (e.g., the most important, Roede et al 1991.)
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