Were the First People Swimmers?

Were the First People Swimmers?
An Illustrated Introduction to
Elaine Morgan’s
Aquatic Ape Theory of Human Evolution
Written and Illustrated by
Judy Kaul
© Judy Kaul, Albuquerque, NM, 2013
P.O. Box 4039, Albuquerque, NM 87196
Were the First People Swimmers?
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. . .”any ideas about what they looked like
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are 95% speculation”. . .
Elaine Morgan
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Were the First People Swimmers?
Dear Reader,
Were the First People Swimmers? was originally
intended for children. However, the ideas are so new
to most people, it also serves as a simple introduction
to Elaine Morgan’s Aquatic Ape Theory for adults.
As you go through this book, please wonder how
we came to be. Here is the best story of human origins
I have ever encountered, and it’s probably the true one.
Please test this theory against your own knowledge
and observations.
Judy Kaul
Writer-Illustrator
Elaine Morgan’s Aquatic Ape Theory of
Human Evolution is firmly rooted in Charles
Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection: Those members of
a species that are best adapted to their environment tend to
thrive and reproduce most successfully; and those that are
best adapted to a new or changing environment may evolve
into a new species.
Darwin’s theory, which transformed scientific
thought in the 19th century, left open the question of
how our own species, Homo sapiens, branched off from
the other great apes and acquired our distinctive
characteristics.
Over the years many paleontologists and other
scientists have endeavored to answer this question, but
so far, in the early 21st century, there is still no
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consensus on how the split occurred. Those who have
undertaken the search have encountered a complex
evolutionary trail and a scarcity of fossils. But finding
the answer was made more difficult than necessary by
the general belief that early humans evolved alongside
other terrestrial mammals, in forests and on
savannahs, not in water along ancient shores.
The widespread assumption that our species
evolved on land made it very difficult to explain how
we became so radically different from all other landdwelling mammals. For example, we are bipedal and
we lack fur. However, almost all other terrestrial
mammals can run on all fours (which affords them
speed to catch prey and/or to outrun predators); and
almost all terrestrial mammals benefit from the many
advantages of having fur (for example, fur insulates
the body and protects the skin, and it gives some
young mammals, especially primates, a way of holding
onto their mothers).
In order to understand how our early human
ancestors evolved away from quadrupedalism, fur and
many other adaptations that were advantageous on
land, there was a need for a paradigm shift.
The shift actually had its beginning in 1929 when a
marine biologist on an Arctic expedition made a
pivotal observation. Sir Alister Hardy noticed that
“blubber” in marine mammals was very similar to
“subcutaneous fat” in humans. He hypothesized that
Homo sapiens had acquired subcutaneous fat the same
way whales, dolphins and seals had -- through the
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process of natural selection while they were living in
water. In 1960, when Hardy unveiled this idea, he
identified some other physiological characteristics of
humans, including bipedalism and lack of fur, that
could also be explained by adaptation to water.
Hardy’s hypothesis, that our species differentiated
in water and subsequently re-adapted to living on
land, made sense to Welsh writer Elaine Morgan.
During a period of almost 40 years, Morgan undertook
an extensive study of scientific data and research from
various fields, and she compiled an enormous body of
scientific evidence that supported Hardy’s hypothesis.
This work became known as “The Aquatic Ape
Theory.”
As in Darwin’s theory, there was no “silver bullet”
of proof but the circumstantial evidence was
overwhelming. Morgan looked painstakingly for any
evidence that would undermine or disprove the theory
but she never found it.
Academia has largely overlooked the Aquatic Ape
Theory. Morgan’s first book on the subject, The
Descent of Woman (1972) was a best-seller that
combined Hardy’s hypothesis with a feminist
perspective. Her subsequent books on human
evolution were scientifically rigorous. All are listed on
page 44 of this book.
Morgan was received into the Linnaean Society in
2008, and in 2009 she was appointed an Officer of the
Order of the British Empire (OBE).
Were the First People Swimmers? is a simple,
illustrated introduction to Elaine Morgan’s Aquatic
Ape Theory.
Acknowledgments
I wrote to Elaine Morgan in 2007 because I wanted
her advice on illustrating “aquatic apes.” I had read
some of her books and my mind was bursting with
images. (I’m an instructional designer with a penchant
for visuals.)
This was the beginning of a 5-year correspondence
during which Elaine 1) got me to understand there
was no scientific way of knowing what the original
aquatic apes looked like, 2) suggested that I write and
illustrate a children’s book on the subject, and 3)
mentored me along as Were the First People
Swimmers? took shape. Sadly, she died in July 2013,
before the book was finished.
I’m grateful to Elaine Morgan for much more than
this book. Her writings transformed my understanding
about who we are as a species and how we fit into the
web of life on Earth. I continue learning as I make new
connections between our early ancestors and the way
we are today.
Many other individuals also helped make this
book happen. Thank you very much, and thank you to
the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
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We’re mammals!
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Mammals are warm blooded animals that have fur or hair, and
the mothers nurse their babies with milk from their bodies.
Mammals live in warm and cold climates, on land, in water, in
trees and underground. Bats are mammals that can fly.
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Chimps are a lot like people!
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People are a lot like chimpanzees, bonobos and other apes; and
we are also very different. We don’t have fur. We run on two
legs, not four, and we can talk in sentences but they can’t.
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Scientists agree that many millions
of years ago our ancestors were more
like chimpanzees and bonobos than they
were like people.
Scientists also agree that our
ancestors began to be more like people
about six or seven million years ago.
Scientists don’t agree on what
happened that made people different
from the other apes.
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We don’t know what our ancestors looked like before there
were people, but they might have looked something like this.
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I wonder how come I can’t run like that!
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Almost all mammals that live on land, including apes, run on all
fours. They’re fast and they make it look easy, but it’s almost
impossible for us to run on our hands and feet.
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When we run, our bodies are straightened out and we only use
our two long legs. We’re not as fast as most four-legged mammals.
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But we can wade into deeper water . . .
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. . . and we can swim faster because we don’t always have
to do the “dog-paddle.”
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The fastest swimmers all straighten out when they swim,
like a streamlined boat or submarine.
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Maybe the first people straightened
out as they waded in water and swam.
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We don’t know what the first people looked like but they
might have looked something like this.
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How come I don’t have fur like that?
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Almost all mammals that live on land have fur. Fur is very
useful to them in many ways.
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Mammals that live in water don’t have fur; fur would slow them
down. They have extra fat under their skin which helps them keep
warm; and fat also helps them float up to the surface to breathe.
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Mammals that go back and forth between water and land have
different amounts of fur and fat.
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These mammals can also go back and forth between water and land.
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People, like elephants, hippopotamuses, whales, and dolphins,
don’t have much fur or hair, and we also have fat under our skin.
Extra fat is useful in water but it’s a problem on land.
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Maybe the first people had less fur
or hair so they could swim better.
Maybe fat under their skin helped
them keep warm and helped them float.
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We don’t know what the first people looked like but they
might have looked something like this.
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Hair is a lot like fur!
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Fur is something baby primates can hang onto.
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Maybe the first people had hair on
their heads so the babies could hold on.
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We don’t know what the first people looked like but they
might have looked something like this.
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I wish you could talk!
Arf!
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neigh!
oink!
roar!
baa!
ooo-ooo!
squeek!
Mammals have been making sounds with their voices for a
very long time. Of course we can too. And . . .
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People can talk in long sentences!
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. . . we can take a deep breath, and as we let the air out we can
make a lot of sounds, one after the other.
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Mammals that swim under water have to come up to the surface
to breathe. In water they hold their breath or they breathe out.
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Maybe the first people let the air
out slowly as they swam underwater.
Today we can let our breath out
slowly as we talk in sentences.
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We don’t know what the first people looked like but they
might have looked something like this.
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Many people love to swim and play in water today. Babies
can learn to swim before they can walk or talk. Babies can float
and keep warm in water because they have baby fat.
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How did we get to be this way? Maybe the first people were
swimmers.
.
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Books by Elaine Morgan on Human Evolution:
The Descent of Woman – The Classic Study of Evolution. Stein & Day,
NYC, 1972, revised in 1986, and Souvenir Press, London, 1972, revised
1985, 1992, 1996.
The Aquatic Ape – A Theory of Human Evolution. Souvenir Press,
London, 1982, 1989.
The Scars of Evolution – What Our Bodies Tell Us About Human Origins.
Souvenir Press, London, 1990, and Oxford University Press, NYC, 1994.
The Descent of the Child - Human Evolution from a New Perspective.
Souvenir Press, London, 1994, and Oxford University Press, 1995.
The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis. Souvenir Press, London, 1997, 2001, 2004.
The Naked Darwinist. Eildon Press, 2008, available online.
Video:
“Elaine Morgan Says We Evolved from Aquatic Apes” on TED Talks
www.ted.com/talks
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Your child asks, “Where did we come from?” and you
wish you had a scientific explanation of human evolution to
answer the question. Or you’re grown-up and still curious.
Were the First People Swimmers? can help!
It is available:
- at AquaticApePrimer.com,
- in high resolution on a CD for $24.99. (Send a check to:
Judy Kaul, P.O. Box 4039, Albuquerque, NM 87196),
- as a hard copy book from AmazonAdvantage.com.
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