Wait... Mermen? We descend from mermen?
By AmberLynn
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104628)
United States
May 29, 2016 5:20am CST
I wasn't really paying attention to be honest with you. It was on while I was eating dinner with the family last night (cubesteak, gravy, mashed taters, biscuits and cranberry sauce) so I did sort of tune in every once in awhile.
From what I gathered, one theory is that we evolved from the apes but that we evolved from apes that became acquatic (it says I am not spelling that right... hmm) to survive.
Another theory, or atleast I think it was (it was hard to distinguish whilst not paying all that much attention anyway) was that we evolved from whales!
I'm just... well I'm not sure. I suppose the former, evolving from acquatic apes, sounds more plausible.
Oh did I say? It was either on animal planet or discovery channel, I can't remember which.
6 people like this
10 responses
@Macarrosel (7498)
• Philippines
29 May 16
I learned from school about the evolution man from apes, but I have no idea yet about the whales.
1 person likes this
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104628)
• United States
29 May 16
Yes, I think we've all learned about the evolution of man from apes. All these other theories are just that, theories. Of course so is the "ape" theory...
1 person likes this
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
29 May 16
I have heard this theory before. I think that it has been debunked by most scientists now. As I recall, it was based on the fact that the saltiness of our blood and other bodily fluids closely resembles the composition of sea water and that the direction of the hair on our bodies (and the relative lack of it compared to other apes) seems to be consistent with an animal which adapted to living in the water.
You can, of course, pick out characteristics in almost anything to support a particular theory and I think this is one such example. There isn't any scientific, geologic or archaeological evidence to show that humans did anything other than evolve from apes and adapted to hunting and gathering in a relatively open grassland anvironment. It was much later (and long after we grew larger brains and lost most of our hair) that we learned to swim and fish in rivers and oceans and we were never, at any stage in our development, a species which lived mostly in or under the water!
1 person likes this
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104628)
• United States
29 May 16
The documentary spoke a little about our sweat and the salt content in our bodies... I think that was one of their main supporting arguments for the theory itself. They also spoke about our ability to hold our breath under water. Of course holding our breath is one thing, but there's two reasons why that doesn't add up.
1) Not all of us can hold our breath for long periods of time.
2) if we evolved from a species that spent a lot of time in the water, why do we not have the ability to breathe under water?
So I tend to agree with you, whatever we did evolve from, it wasn't a purely aquatic species.
1 person likes this
@allen0187 (58582)
• Philippines
29 May 16
Curious hearing those theories. Me thinks we came from primates but I could be wrong.
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104628)
• United States
29 May 16
There really is no true way to tell WHERE we came from. We may have even come from more than one evolution...
It could attest to some genetic defects we have (born with more fingers, less fingers etc)
1 person likes this
@allen0187 (58582)
• Philippines
30 May 16
@ScribbledAdNauseum should be interesting to find the definite answer. I doubt that happens though.
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104628)
• United States
29 May 16
We probably watched the same one then. I believe that the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet are owned by the same people.
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104628)
• United States
29 May 16
The theory was based off of the webbing between our fingers and toes.
1 person likes this
@Dramista (542)
•
29 May 16
Its probably from the History Channel, There is this crazy theory that we were descendants of the sunken city of Atlantis.
You know history channel
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104628)
• United States
29 May 16
Pretty sure the little logo on the bottom said "animal planet" 
@irishidid (8687)
• United States
29 May 16
Hadn't heard that one but hey, why not. LOL Oh and you just need to take out the "c" 
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104628)
• United States
29 May 16
I was ready for bed when I wrote this. I saw my mistake as soon as I re-read it! lol. I am pretty sure that's a common mis-spell though.
@tokitokar (3)
• Nyiregyhaza, Hungary
29 May 16
hello! I'm learning English. it means you heard sort of tone ?^:)
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104628)
• United States
29 May 16
It was an interesting documentary from what little I saw. They got into why they thought it could be mermen, it all went down to the sounds they recorded in the ocean...
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104628)
• United States
29 May 16
True, it is a bit far fetched. According to the documentary, it would attest to the webbing between our fingers and toes though.
