The Aat Aquatic Ape Theary

[Lord_Deadpool]

So,a month or 2 ago I was waching on animal planet some thing that intrested me graitly,the AAT or the aquatic ape theary,it states that humanity in its evolution at one point lived on shore lines or in the oceans them selfs,and hear are my question; Is it true and is it posible that some of ouer ancesters stayed in the oceans and evolved it to what we call mermaids? Debate away,from little old me =]

 

[DankeeYankee]

If mermaids were real, then I'd probably say maybe.

 

[Lord_Deadpool]

Look it up and you shal see

 

[Sven_Tu]

If I remember correctly, the aquatic ape theory was one explanation for why humans don't have as much body hair as other apes, lost to be able to swim better. I think becoming mermaids is a bit farfetched though.

 

[Lord_Deadpool]

It isn't if a grupe of ouer ansesters remained in the sea and evolved for aquatic life completly,loseing ther leags and adapting for life under water

 

[Mecharic]

The AAT is a theory for how humans lost their fur and became a fully upright species. It also explains a few other details of our physical design. It in no way points towards a fully aquatic species of human or great ape. Indeed, such a species would be extreme difficult to manage, as they would need to live like whales or seals, breathing air but living in the ocean. No gills allowed for mammals yet. There would have needed to have been considerable stress on land to drive a group of any ape into the ocean full time, as the only species that is considered a semi-aquatic ape does so to avoid freezing to death in winter by swimming in hot springs.

 

[Lord_Deadpool]

We have only explored about 10% of the earths oceans,2002 a body of a pigmy whail washed up on the beach of a cuntry a dont remember,and this tite of whail was thought to have bein exteincet,so why is it so far feched that a speacy of humans dos live some whear in the oceans?

 

[Sven_Tu]

Well, it's not that the oceans are big enough to hide mermaids; what I find farfetched is the idea that apes became half-sea creature hybrids in the very short amount of time apes have existed on the Earth. I don't think there would have been enough time or pressure or reasons for apes to evolve very different ways of breathing underwater and body parts for swimming.

'course, I could be completely wrong and there may really be mermaids and that would raise the question of how they could have possibly existed. And that's what makes debates fun~

 

[Lord_Deadpool]

In the show that I wached,they sey that ouer ansesters wher forced to the ocean shour do to the forasts geting smaller and food shortage,it explains that the main elements that are needed for the brain to develep are founed in clams and other sea animals,and the reason why the apes started being bepidal and why a grupe of them stayed in the oceans and evolved for aquatic life rather then land life

 

[Sven_Tu]

I've heard the aquatic ape theory before and it makes sense but for some reason I have this feeling that I disagreed with it and I don't remember why ...

Anyway, the theory says apes moved to the shore for more food and stuff, but it wasn't that they stayed in the water the whole time. It was just a bit of splashing around the beach for some fish to eat and stuff. They would have still lived on land, but with a bit of extra swimming to find more food.

This is important because primates are usually afraid of water. Except for humans, most can't swim. This theory is another possible explanation for why humans are so different from other apes. Part vegetarian ape, part hunter, part swimmer, a strange mix of everything. But we're still very much land creatures, made to live on land. We're the most adapted primates to swim and it's still hard for us, it would've been harder for our ancestors so that's why I find it farfetched that there would be a group that lived full time in water.

 

[Spiderer1210]

They would be like Mermaids? No way, they'd look like Zoras!
But seriously, I don't think that they would have bred into some kind of man-fish thing. Evolution is confusing and retarded anyway.

 

[FCCarnilord]

Personally I don't believe this. Like what @Spiderer1210 said, it would be more like a "Zora" as we wouldn't have normal skin but scales. Skin wrinkles over time underwater because of the lack of air, sometimes causing skin to shrivel and die/peel off. We would have had scales way back when at that time, meaning if this theory WAS correct we would have had scales or a leather/blubber strong enough to take water pressure and be durable enough to survive underwater. To evolve would take so much, such as us adapting to an more earthy environment. By now anyway, there would be mummified remains of the Aquatics apes. A team of scientists had found a dinosaur "mummy" because it had died underwater, and managed to be buried a few feet deep under dirt and sand, preventing a decent bit of the cells and flesh from breaking down because it was in that little enclosed pocket.

 

[leafnosedbat]

Just for fun, I'm going to point out that humans have just as many hairs as our gorilla cousins. Our hairs are just shorter and thinner. We at no point "lost" hair. Our hair just changed.

There is no evidence that protohumans ever became "mermaids". There really wasn't enough time. Look at the evolution of whales. A species which DID shed their legs and get fish tails. That's estimated to have taken about 50 million years.

Humans, a genus of animals of which we are the only surviving species, are believed to have first arisen about 2.5 million years ago. Such an anatomical leap as becoming aquatic would be extremely unlikely to have happened in such a short time.

 

[millawolf]

After reading up on AAT, it seems like the scientific community has said no. There seems to be a lack of a fossil record ect. It has not passed any peer review. T.V is meant to entertain and often glosses over facts.

 

[babbleboi]

Actually, if you referring to that mermaid show; yes it was quite convincing at first but I looked into it some more its all fake. The entire mermaid show that is supposed to prove their existence was just a special broadcasting celebrating some random holiday I forgot; All those "professors" and high positioned people don't actually exist because they are all actors. The show also says somewhere at the beginning or at the end in small print that the entire show is just for entertainment, just like the other shows on Animal Planet: Big Foot, Dragons, Etc

 

[babbleboi]

You can find that here so if that is where you got your information of starting this debate; all your arguments derived from that documentary are all mislead, but I'm not saying they don't exist, just presenting the fact that the Animal Planet "Mockumentary" is ...well, a joke.

 

[Lord_Deadpool]

I now that its highly unlikely that its real,but ceap in mind that we now only 10% of ouer oceans,so something like this choud be posible.

 

[Sven_Tu]

I now that its highly unlikely that its real,but ceap in mind that we now only 10% of ouer oceans,so something like this choud be posible.

Click to shrink...

It's not that we haven't explored the whole ocean, it's that humans couldn't have become mermaids in the first place.

 

[DrFong]

Interesting topic. Not a scientific theary at all, (not even a theory) but an interesting idea from the past. It really has nothing to do with mermaids at all though.

If my aged brain is remembering correctly, this was a popular idea for a while but fell out of fashion when there was little to no evidence to support it.

I think an idea that makes more sense is that early humans had a very close relationship with the seaside (like we do today) and with rivers. Think of all that easy food just sitting around in tidepools and clams just under the sand. Seems like much easier pickins' than making a go of it on the brutal plains of Africa.. African coast was probably looking pretty good in comparison.

Interesting discussion! Keep wondering!

 

[HereticTakao]

Well if mermaids were real... The Government and Global Warming would kill them off.
DUH!

 

[Joseph Marini]

That mermaid documentary was fake.