https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nxAB6DthfxH7bCnUEO9UvdYHFNCDxeDjWXV4qvYDBFk/edit

Science has always been quick to reject alternative paradigms.
And been proven wrong for doing so.

Throughout history, science has been resistant to new ideas, even in the last decade. Here are some examples:
-- The Copernican Model of the Solar System: was initially rejected by the scientific community, when it was proposed by Nicolaus Copernicus in 1543. It proposed that the Earth & other planets revolve around the Sun, rather than the Sun revolving around
the Earth. It was finally accepted as the accepted model of the Solar System in the early 17th century.
-- Germ Theory of Disease: originally proposed in the mid-19th century, was initially rejected by many in the scientific community, but was finally accepted in the late 1870s. The germ theory established that many diseases are caused by micro-organisms,
and was a major breakthrough in the field of medicine.
-- The Theory of Evolution: was initially rejected by the scientific community when it was proposed by Charles Darwin in the mid-19th century. It proposed that all spp of life descended from common ancestors through a process of natural selection. It was
finally accepted as the accepted theory of biological evolution in the late 19th century.
-- Plate Tectonics: is the theory that the Earth’s lithosphere is composed of several large plates, which move relative to one another. Initially, this theory was rejected by the scientific community, due to lack of evidence. It was not until the late
1960s & early'70s that the theory was finally accepted, when data from the newly-launched satellites provided evidence of the movement of the plates.
-- Continental Drift: is the theory that the continents are constantly shifting & moving, due to geological forces. This was initially rejected by most scientists, due to the lack of evidence & the fact that it contradicted existing theories. It wasn’t
until the late'50s when data from the newly-launched satellites provided evidence of the movement of the continents that it was finally accepted.
-- The Big Bang Theory: is the prevailing cosmological model, that explains the formation of the universe. It was proposed in the 1920s, but it wasn’t until the late 1960s & 1970s that it began to gain acceptance from the scientific community.
-- Endosymbiosis Theory: is the idea that certain cells evolved through the process of endosymbiosis, or the taking in & maintaining of other organisms within their cells. This theory was first proposed in the late 1960s, but it wasn’t until the late
1990s that it was widely accepted.
-- Evolution by Natural Selection: is the process by which organisms adapt to their environment through a series of changes over time. This theory was first proposed by Charles Darwin in 1859, but it wasn’t until the 1970s that it began to gain
acceptance from the scientific community.
-- String Theory: was first proposed in the late 1960s, but was largely dismissed until the 1990s. It is a theory of quantum gravity, that seeks to explain the behavior of particles & forces at the smallest scales. It has since become one of the most
widely accepted theories in modern physics.
-- Dark Matter: was proposed in the 1930s, to explain the discrepancy between the mass of galaxies & the amount of visible matter. It wasn't until the late 1990s & early 2000s that dark matter was widely accepted by the scientific community.
-- Climate Change: was first proposed in the late 19th century, but it was largely ignored until the late 20th century. In the 1990s & 2000s, the scientific community began to accept the notion that human activity is contributing to global warming.
-- The now 100 year-old AAT has been a particulary controversial hypothesis, that has been historically ignored by the “fathers” of paleo-anthropology, who have ruled & governed the science since its inception. As noted in a leading textbook by Lewin
& Foley (2004 p.283), "most textbooks on human evolution—this one included—simply ignore the aquatic ape model", indicating the limited attention given to this hypothesis. This lack of attention is further attested to by a recent survey of life
scientists, who reported that they had never heard of the AAT (Tuomisto cs 2018). As discussed by Krill (2014) in the paper that his one used as a template for: Alfred Wegener's continental drift hypothesis was well-researched & presented in a few
respectable books by Wegener & other scientists, and yet it was ridiculed by geologists & fossil experts, and kept out of geology textbooks & scientific journals for 40 years. Despite the strong evidence for it, continental drift was denied, until new
data from the magnetic record of rocks on the sea-floor was able to corroborate it. This newfound evidence allowed for the continental drift hypothesis to develop into a powerful paradigm for earth science, now known as plate tectonics. Though the
scandalous 4-decade denial of continental drift was largely overlooked, it serves as a reminder that science can indeed deny a correct hypothesis for decades, even with ample evidence to support it.
The continental drift & aquatic ape hypotheses are more than mere scientific suppositions; they are paradigms, or widely accepted frame-works, for understanding the world. Thomas Kuhn (1962) famously argued: due to a natural inclination towards
conservatism, scientists & scientific journals tend to focus on the established paradigm, often to the detriment of any other approaches. This tendency to be biased towards the status-quo has been observed to be a major impediment to scientific progress,
as it can lead to the rejection of new ideas without proper consideration (Laudan 1981).
Although the evidence for the aquatic ape paradigm is not heavily derived from fossils or fossil sites, which are the cornerstone of paleo-anthropology, it is largely based on studying the anatomy, physiology & genetics of both living humans &
chimpanzees. But these features cannot be preserved as fossils: textbooks on human evolution often do not give much attention to them, and instead focus on how fossils have been interpreted. Therefore, textbook authors have historically considered the
aquatic paradigm to be a distraction that should be avoided by students. This is evidenced in a 2010 review of human evolution textbooks, which found that none of the textbooks dedicated more than 2 pages to the AAT (McDonald 2010).

Since Elaine Morgan’s 2009 Ted Talk support behind AAT has grown significantly. Anne Yoder (Braxton Craven Distinguished Prof. of Evol.Biology) has been supportive of the Theory. Christina J. Campbell (an evolutionary biologist & adjunct prof.
anthropology Univ.British Columbia) has suggested that the development of adipose tissue in humans may have been an adaptation for aquatic living, allowing for buoyancy & insulation in cold water. Caroline M. Pond (Emerita Professor at Open University)
and Holger & Signe Preuschoft (professors of PA & philosophy Univ. Goettingen in Germany resp.) are 2 prominent figures in the AAT field. Martin Pickford (French PA & a leading proponent of the AAT) has commented on the geological evidence. Frans de
Waal (prominent primatologist) has expressed support for Morgan's AAT, as has Lynne A. Isbell (professor of anthropology at the Univ.California, Davis). Cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett has also expressed support for AAT, as have David Attenborough,
the late Phillip Tobias, one of South Africa's PAs & Professor Emeritus at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. And the list continues to grow.

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