Welcome
WHAT TALKS ran for two years from November 2021 until October 2023.
They have been paused indefinitely, perhaps to resume in 2025.
Please feel free to share links to any of these videos to try to encourage debate among students of biological anthropology about the so-called "aquatic ape hypothesis" - a label that seems o
Join / Contribute to the AAT Discussion Group
There has been an "AAT" discussion group going on for many years now.
Why not join to discuss WHAT Talk videos and any other related subject?
About WHAT Talks
You've heard of TED Talks, right? Well this is WHAT Talks.
These are also ideas worth spreading, but only about human evolution and specifically ideas about waterside hypotheses of human evolution.
Every month a guest speaker will be invited to give a free, public, global, virtual talk to anyone interested in why we are so different, physically, from chimpanzees. The series will also be supplemented with occasional interviews, tutorials and other video items.
WHAT Talks? - Humans, right? But why?
There are many differences between humans and chimpanzees, including these...
We are bipedal.
We have an adult brain 3x bigger than theirs.
We have a relatively denuded body hair pattern.
Our infants are born with 5x as much subcutaneous fat.
We have a descended larynx.
We have fine voluntary breath control.
etc.
The simplest, most parsimonious, explanation for all these traits and many more is that our ancestors inhabited waterside habitats for most of their evolutionary history since the split with the chimpanzee.
Waterside Hypotheses of Human Evolution do not propose mermaids or the man from Atlantis, they simply suggest that the lineage leading to Homo sapiens was exposed to greater selection from wading, swimming and diving than the ancestors of chimpanzees and gorillas.
Waterside Hypotheses-related Anatomy Tutorials
For about three generations, students of biological anthropology and human evolution have not really been taught a fair account of Alister Hardy's so-called "aquatic ape theory", far better labelled, in the plural, "waterside hypotheses of human evolution".
The plan is to start to bridge that gap right here with a series of anatomy talks and tutorials that are not hesitant, or embarrassed, about mentioning the dreaded "aquatic" factor.
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