We noticed this question at a very young age about how humans came to be, and we constantly ask our parents the question: "Where did we come from?"
Slightly more enlightened parents would tell us that we came from our mother's belly. But this answer does not satisfy the curious children, who often continue to ask how the first person came to be.
In the past, when humans explained how the first man came to be, they would adopt the creationist view that the first man was created by God.
Although creationism can explain the origin of human beings, the evidence is not solid, for example, no one has ever seen God. So later people began to question God's creation theory, but turned to evolution: human beings evolved from other organisms.
In the early days of evolution, due to the insufficient number of fossils observed, the scientific means of research are not smart enough, the instruments are not advanced enough and other practical problems, so that in the early days scientists put forward many interesting theories, such as: water ape theory.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > water ape theory</h1>
The aquatic ape theory, also known as the aquatic ape theory, was first developed by Alist. Sir Hardy proposed it in the 1930s, and after 30 years of research, he solemnly published the theory in the new scientific journal.
In his view, the aquatic ape theory can explain why humans do not have body hair, the reason is about 8 million years ago, when the ocean area on the earth increased, resulting in large areas of land being submerged, when apes adapted to life in the sea in a relatively short period of time in order to survive.
In order to adapt to life in the water, humans gradually changed from walking on all fours to walking upright. This can also be seen from the difference between chimpanzees and humans, chimpanzees cannot float in the water, while humans can.
In order to reduce the resistance during swimming, humans have shed body hair during evolution, but because the head needs to be often exposed to the water for ventilation, humans still have hair. Supporting this theory is that human babies can swim around in the water within a week or two of birth.
The water ape theory is also a good explanation for the peculiar direction of human hair. We know that humans and chimpanzees are close relatives, but chimpanzees' body hair grows backwards. Human body hair, on the other hand, grows in the direction of the spine, which looks like a trace of the current flowing through the water when swimming in the water.
In addition, the body's subcutaneous fat is thicker, and the subcutaneous fat can keep warm, which is common in marine mammals, such as whales, but not in gorillas.
Since the aquatic ape theory can explain this feature well, it is not surprising that scientists proposed this theory in the early days.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > humans become water monkeys? </h1>
Although the water ape theory sounds very reliable, it is not actually accepted by the scientific community. The reason why the aquatic ape theory is so widely spread is because a female writer named Morgan, she is not a scientist, a writer, and a feminist, she is dissatisfied with the fact that many anthropologists have belittled the status of women, so she wrote a best-selling book called "Aquatic Ape Theory", in which she combines feminism and aquatic ape theory, and constantly carries out lectures, lectures, etc. to spread her theory, making the aquatic ape theory accepted by many people.
However, influence does not mean that it is a correct theory in science, human evolution from ape to man, never went through the stage of launching, that is, human beings did not become by water monkeys, this evidence supports a variety of fossils, such as: scientists in Africa excavated a large number of ancient ape fossils, such as: Rama ancient ape, forest ancient ape, Archaeopteryx, Australopithecus australopithecus, etc., and this was not the marine environment at that time.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > human origin</h1>
Today, as scientists' observational techniques have improved, the number of fossil specimens excavated has increased, and there is growing evidence that humans originated on land in eastern Africa.
About 10 million years ago, due to the formation of the Great Rift Valley in Africa, the ancient ancestors of human beings were trapped in eastern Africa and difficult to move to other continents. The climate in eastern Africa began to become arid, with forests fading and savannas taking its place.
In order to survive, some of the apes were forced to come down from the trees and walk upright on the ground. In the process of walking on the ground, humans gradually began to eat meat, because meat food is rich in nutrients than plants, so humans get more energy, began to have excess energy to develop the brain, so the human brain capacity is also getting larger.
About 1.8 million years ago, the first member of the human family, the Noh, appeared, and studies have shown that its brain volume has exceeded 650 milliliters, so it is considered by scientists to be the first human race.
After that, The Noh or other human races continued to evolve, constantly evolving artisans, Homo erectus, etc., of which Homo erectus gradually went out of Africa and took root in all parts of the world, such as: Beijing ape man is a kind of Homo erectus. But at this time, Homo sapiens had not yet emerged, and Homo sapiens continued to evolve in its homeland in Africa, until the Ice Age 65,000 years ago, when humans gradually left Africa and spread to the world.
As for the human body hair shedding explained by the water ape theory, scientists have found that the time of human body hair shed is about 1.2 million years ago, and 170,000 years ago, which is inconsistent with the water ape theory that shed body hair 8 million years ago.
In addition, the aquatic ape theory cannot explain why a human body should retain armpit and pubic hair after the hair has faded throughout the body; moreover, the female breast is obviously not conducive to swimming. Therefore, in the face of more and more evidence, the water ape theory has not gained a foothold.