[Jubloz]

Athena, I agree that the aquatic ape hypothesis is extremely persuasive, but I'd never thought about a possible benefit of having long hair to grab onto. That's interesting. How would sweat glands and salty tears be relevant to an aquatic ape, though? I can see how glands would have some use outside of the water, but not within.

Another example of supportive evidence for the aquatic ape hypothesis is that women typically give birth more easily in water. With increasing cranial capacity, it would have been very difficult for proto-humans to give birth, but water birthing may have prevented, or at least alleviated, natural selection working against them. Also, it's extremely strange that newborns don't take their first breath until they're exposed to air and that they will actually do just fine in water until then. Water birthing also allows for complications to be more easily dealt with, such as the newborn being caught up in the umbilical cord, or preventing the child from inhaling excrement, which apparently is an extremely common danger in most births.

I also find it extremely interesting that many early religions worshiped feminine water deities. This is a connection that I'm actually trying to investigate at the moment.