Scars of Evolution: What Our Bodies Tell Us About Human Origins - Softcover

Morgan, Elaine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0285629964 ISBN 13: 9780285629967

Publisher: Souvenir Press, 1990

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author:

Elaine Morgan's first book, The Descent of Woman (1972), was an international bestseller in nine languages. Best known as an award-winning writer for television, she is also the author of The Aquatic Ape (1982).

Synopsis:

An account of what is known as the 'Aquatic Ape' thesis in which Elaine Morgan challenges the traditional theories of evolution.

About this edition

• Publisher: Souvenir Press
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0285629964
• ISBN 13: 9780285629967
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 212