I have heard the idea that pre-humans lost (some) body hair to become faster swimmers, giving them better ability to exploit shores, rivers, lakes etc. And I think that there are some other arguments offered to support the idea that swimming ability has shaped some aspects of our development.

The only problem is that there are potential other explanations for these traits and even if aquatic resource use did provide a selective pressure on certain traits, it is hard to know how strong that pressure was compared to other traits.

Sloths in the surf, eh? Sounds like a nice lifestyle. I think I saw someone at the YMCA pool that would qualify on the body hair criteria alone. I wonder if these things kept their fur like otters or lost it like other marine mammals.

A sophisticated and good article.
I”ll read more about this topic.

http://www.talkorigins.org/features/whales/

Thank you for doing this meaningfull work. Your support helps Dutch evolutionism. By the way our evolutionism is not different from yours.

Yours sincerely,

Tjeerd Plantinga

I have followed the science press on the wolf- or dog-like predecesors of whales and aquatic mammals to the extent that time permits.

I am often amazed, but should not be, of the arguments creationists and so-called intelligent design propogandists use to promote their positions. The more their mythology is eviserated, the more they fractionate their arguments. (I used this argument in a legal case about 15 years ago. The more our arguments defeated those of opposing counsel, the more they split the legal flagella).

So I offer this mostly unrelated anectdote to give a little back to this informative and intellectually invigorating site.

Rob Feightner, JD, LLM, AAMS
Stock Broker

Modern sloths can and do swim, hurled or not. The Amazon Basin floods each year and sloths have to swim to get from tree to tree. They aren’t fast, but they can do it. Unfortunately for them, so too do jaguars…