Wed 7 & 14 Sept. at 9am, on BBC radio 4:
The Waterside Ape.
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07w4y98> <http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07w4y98/episodes>

This programme will be available shortly after broadcast.

Sir David Attenborough considers whether new evidence will help a once ridiculed theory of human origins move towards to mainstream acceptance.

In 1960, the eminent Oxford marine biologist Sir Alister Hardy proposed a revolutionary idea:
our human ancestors had started their existence, not on the wide savannahs of Africa, but had become accustomed to living alongside water, swimming & diving in the shallows, collecting the abundant food & learning to use language & fashion tools.
Hardy asserted that this adaptation to living at the waterside would also account for a whole range of peculiarities about the human form:
the layers of fat beneath the skin, the relative lack of body-hair, the development of language & speech, and what has been called our 'runaway brains'.

Perhaps surprisingly, it was a screen-writer rather than a scientist, Elaine Morgan, who took up Hardy's theory, and, for over 40 years, progressively refined the evidence for the idea.
Most mainstream paleo-anthropologists rejected the Hardy-Morgan thesis for decades,
but some influential scientists asked for the proposal to be approached with an open mind.

Sir David Attenborough first considered the controversial theory on Radio 4 in 2004.
In this new series of 2 programmes "The Waterside Ape", he brings us up to date with the story & the evidence put forward since then - both for the hypothesis & also for its continuing detractors.

Back in 2004, Sir David asked Elaine Morgan how long it would take for the aquatic adaptation theory to become a mainstream account of human origins.
She answered, "I'll give it 10 years."
As we review the new evidence, has she been proved right?

Producer: Richard Collins
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

For an update of the waterside or littoral theory, google
- common misconceptions so-called aquatic ape hypothesis,
- ape and human evolution 2018 made easy.

Wed 7 & 14 Sept. at 9am, on BBC radio 4:
The Waterside Ape.
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07w4y98> <http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07w4y98/episodes>

This programme will be available shortly after broadcast.

Sir David Attenborough considers whether new evidence will help a once ridiculed theory of human origins move towards to mainstream acceptance.

In 1960, the eminent Oxford marine biologist Sir Alister Hardy proposed a revolutionary idea:
our human ancestors had started their existence, not on the wide savannahs of Africa, but had become accustomed to living alongside water, swimming & diving in the shallows, collecting the abundant food & learning to use language & fashion tools.
Hardy asserted that this adaptation to living at the waterside would also account for a whole range of peculiarities about the human form:
the layers of fat beneath the skin, the relative lack of body-hair, the development of language & speech, and what has been called our 'runaway brains'.

Perhaps surprisingly, it was a screen-writer rather than a scientist, Elaine Morgan, who took up Hardy's theory, and, for over 40 years, progressively refined the evidence for the idea.
Most mainstream paleo-anthropologists rejected the Hardy-Morgan thesis for decades,
but some influential scientists asked for the proposal to be approached with an open mind.

Sir David Attenborough first considered the controversial theory on Radio 4 in 2004.
In this new series of 2 programmes "The Waterside Ape", he brings us up to date with the story & the evidence put forward since then - both for the hypothesis & also for its continuing detractors.

Back in 2004, Sir David asked Elaine Morgan how long it would take for the aquatic adaptation theory to become a mainstream account of human origins.
She answered, "I'll give it 10 years."
As we review the new evidence, has she been proved right?

Producer: Richard Collins
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)