The AAT/H characteristics list
If you've surfed the web for AAT/H
info, or read a news story about it, you've seen the info from the comparative
list in the AAT/H leaflet.
This was apparently first written up to
be given out at talks by Elaine Morgan, and her grandson posted it on his
site soon after.
I assume it was written by Elaine Morgan.
I see that AAT/H proponent Algis Kuliukas has disputed the origin of this leaflet ("The authority of this leaflet has to be questioned from the start"); Morgan's grandson referred to it as "the leaflet printed by Accent of Swansea for Elaine Morgan".
(Perhaps Kuliukas assumes Morgan's grandson was lying, or perhaps he assumes Morgan's printer (Accent ADC of Swansea) just made up all those claims on their own.)
My site deals with these characteristics on the "AAT/H claims and the facts"
page, but since this handout has been and continues to be the basis for
much AAT/H discussion, I've put the original list here along with an annotated
copy, which lists the actual facts behind the leaflet's false "facts".
The AAT/H leaflet list
Characteristics
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Humans
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Apes
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Savannah
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Aquatics
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Habitual Bipedalism
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Yes
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Loss of body hair
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Yes
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Yes
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Yes
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Skin-bonded fat deposits
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Yes
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Yes
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Ventro-ventral copulation
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Yes
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Yes
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Yes
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Dimunition of apocrine
glands
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Yes
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Yes
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Hymen
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Yes
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Yes
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Enlarged sebaceous glands
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Yes
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Yes
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Psychic tears
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Yes
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Yes
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Loss of vibrissae
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Yes
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Yes
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Volitional breath control
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Yes
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Yes
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Eccrine thermoregulation
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Yes
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Yes
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Descended larynx
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Yes
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Yes
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The Aquatic phase took place more than 5 million years ago.
Since then, Homo has had five million years to
re-adapt to terrestrial life.
It is not surprising that the traces
of aquatic adaptation have become partially obliterated and have gone unrecognized
for so long.
But the traces are still there as the table indicates.
The "Yes" in column 3 refers to the bonobo;
in column 4 the rhinoceros and the elephant.
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That's a pretty impressive
list, judging from people's responses to it.
And since it is true
that paleoanthropological theories don't explain why this list's correlations
between humans and "aquatics" exist, it's no wonder uninformed people think
the AAT/H is at least as valid as those from more traditional sources.
The problem comes when people become informed by other than AAT/H proponents.
It turns out the "similarities" listed in the leaflet's list are bogus,
so explaining why they exist is impossible -- they aren't real.
However, as Darwin long ago noticed about false "facts", they keep showing up,
again and again.
Notice in the headings of this
list the use of the word "Savannah" instead of terrestrial or land-based;
while the next heading is simply "Aquatics".
The AAT/H proponent feels
free to use any purported feature from any aquatic animal
(no matter what their size, habitat, lifestyle, or length of time being
aquatic) as evidence for their theory, while attempting to restrict the
opposing theory to only a small subset of terrestrial mammals.
This is the Logical Fallacy called "Special Pleading", which is a common AAT/H technique.
Even doing this, they continually have to look to supposed
similarities with aquatic mammals which have highly specialized aquatic
features which they've developed over the course of tens of millions of
years of intensive aquatic living.
We're talking seals, sirenians (dugongs
and manatees), and whales here; they are the mammals the list refers to
in each of its categories (although even then the similarities aren't real).
Seals have been aquatic for about 25 million years or so; sirenians and whales
for perhaps 50; all are so specialized they are incapable of living a natural
life which isn't aquatic (especially sirenians and whales).
Here's the list again, with a reality check added.
For more info on these features, look through
this site; there's a lot here and I'll be adding more info to the site
as time goes on.
The AAT/H leaflet list...annotated
Does the AAT/H leaflet tell the real story?
The right-hand column shows when the AAT/H claims are true, false, or simply wildly misleading.
Characteristics
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Humans
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Apes
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Savannah
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Aquatics
|
Reality
|
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Habitual Bipedalism
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Yes
|
|
|
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True:
Although AAT/H proponents claim that an aquatic lifestyle forces an adaptation to bipedalism, even they have to admit there is no evidence for this claim.
They also leave out the many mammals which do use occasional bipedalism, perhaps because it's common in many terrestrial mammals.
The only mammals which typically use occasional bipedalism for all the reasons humans
do -- locomotion, feeding, sentry and display behavior -- are terrestrial mammals, such as primates
and kangaroos; no aquatic mammal uses bipedalism.
|
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Loss of body hair
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Yes
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Yes (rhinoceros
and
elephant)
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Yes
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Highly misleading:
All the mammals mentioned have hair and skin characteristics radically different from humans'.
And among aquatic mammals only cetaceans, sirenians, and the semi-aquatic hippopotamus; all are either very large sized and/or high-speed swimmers with highly specialized skin and which have been very specialized aquatic mammals
for several tens of millions of years.
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Skin-bonded fat deposits
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Yes
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|
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Yes
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Wrong:
Our fat deposits are like other
primates and very unlike fatty aquatic mammals, both in pattern and life
history.
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Ventro-ventral copulation
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Yes
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Yes (bonobo)
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Yes
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Wrong:
Also seen in
orangs, black-handed spider monkeys, and occasionally in woolly spider monkeys and gorillas; and only some very specialized aquatic mammals which
have been aquatic for several tens of millions of years.
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Dimunition of apocrine
glands
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Yes
|
|
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Yes
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Wrong:
Humans
follow progression seen in great apes; and in aquatic mammals
only in whales, very specialized aquatic mammals with highly specialized skin and which
have been aquatic for several tens of millions of years.
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Hymen
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Yes
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|
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Yes
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Wrong:
Found
in various terrestrial mammals, including lemurs, llamas, guinea pigs, hyenas, elephants, rats, horses, and some species of galago, as well as in aquatic mammals such as toothed whales, seals, and sirenia.
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Enlarged sebaceous glands
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Yes
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|
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Yes
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Wrong:
Only lemurs have sebaceous glands as large and numerous as humans'.
The AAT/H claim apparently originally referred to a study which only compared the sebaceous glands of phocid (earless) seals to otarid (or earred) seals.
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Psychic tears
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Yes
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|
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Yes
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Wrong:
Proven
in humans only; claimed in several aquatic and terrestrial
mammals.
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Loss of vibrissae
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Yes
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|
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Yes
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Wrong:
Humans
follow progression of fewer vibrissae (sensory whiskers) seen in great apes; and in aquatic
mammals seen only in some whales, very specialized aquatic mammals which
have been aquatic for several tens of millions of years.
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Volitional breath control
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Yes
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|
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Yes
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Wrong:
Humans have greater control than other mammals but breath-holding is seen
in other mammals, including many primates and in dogs.
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Eccrine thermoregulation
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Yes
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|
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Yes
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Wrong:
Humans
and some primates only; not seen in any aquatic mammal.
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Descended larynx
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Yes
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|
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Yes
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Wrong:
Humans'
larynx very different from aquatic mammals, both in structure and life
history, and descended larynx found in various terrestrial animals, including chimps and various deer species.
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