
Scars of Evolution
What Our Bodies Tell Us About Human Origins
Elaine Morgan(Author)
Souvenir Press Ltd
Published on 18. October 1990
Book
Paperback/Softback
212 pages
978-0-285-62996-7 (ISBN)
Description
In this lively and controversial book Elaine Morgan presents a challenging interpretation to the question of human evolution. With brilliant logic she argues that our hominid ancestors began to evolve in response to an aquatic environment.
Millions of years ago something happened that caused our ancestors to walk on two legs, to lose their fur, to develop larger brains and learn how to speak. Elaine Morgan discovers what this event was by studying the many incongruous flaws in the physiological make-up of humans. The human body is liable to suffer from obesity, lower back pain and acne. In support of her aquatic ape hypothesis she points out the flaws in our physiological make-up: the difficulties of erect bipedalism, our hairlessness and fat-layers, our preference for face to face sex and the way we breathe. Are these flaws a record of the history of the species, the 'scars' of evolution that are clues to earlier stages of evolution?
Morgan establishes the origins of the evolutionary path that separated humans from other animals and questions the theories currently accepted by science. Did our ancestors adapt to an aquatic environment that subsequently dried out? Elaine Morgan has made the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis a plausible alternative to conventional theories of evolution and in The Scars of Evolution she brings a real understanding of who humans are and where they came from.
Millions of years ago something happened that caused our ancestors to walk on two legs, to lose their fur, to develop larger brains and learn how to speak. Elaine Morgan discovers what this event was by studying the many incongruous flaws in the physiological make-up of humans. The human body is liable to suffer from obesity, lower back pain and acne. In support of her aquatic ape hypothesis she points out the flaws in our physiological make-up: the difficulties of erect bipedalism, our hairlessness and fat-layers, our preference for face to face sex and the way we breathe. Are these flaws a record of the history of the species, the 'scars' of evolution that are clues to earlier stages of evolution?
Morgan establishes the origins of the evolutionary path that separated humans from other animals and questions the theories currently accepted by science. Did our ancestors adapt to an aquatic environment that subsequently dried out? Elaine Morgan has made the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis a plausible alternative to conventional theories of evolution and in The Scars of Evolution she brings a real understanding of who humans are and where they came from.
More details
Edition
Main
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Profile Books Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 214 mm
Width: 136 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
180 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-285-62996-7 (9780285629967)
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E-Book
04/2012
1st Edition
Souvenir Press Ltd
from
€19.99
Available for download
Person
Elaine Morgan was born in 1920, and after studying at Oxford University, worked as a television writer. In 1972, she published The Descent of Woman suggesting that human evolution had an aquatic origin. In the decades since, Morgan's aquatic ape hypothesis has gained widespread support. She died in 2013.