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anakro22 t1_j9iyxm7 wrote

I don't know of any 'more accepted hypothesis' that explains it better than AAT, because, for a lack of a better word, we simply have none. The main reason why we humans are here and why not some gorillas instead of us, are our brains. The only reason why we are so smart is docosahexaeionic acid, DHA, primarily and mostly in human diets because of fish and shelfish, as it is produced by algae in marine environments. We do not see human-like brain development in land-mammals. Any animal, not getting enough DHA and living on land, tends to get 'big', but not smart. The reason for that is that in the land-based food chain there simply is no DHA available for brain growth. For humans, seafood probably was the only constantly available food resource and once we learned to digest and aquire it, our development from other apes diverged. And all of this, just because of our brain, I haven't even mentioned the fact that babies can swim before they learn to walk etc., etc., which clearly shows hominids being semi-aquatic for a long time before settling down.

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annul t1_j9j3rh1 wrote

> Any animal, not getting enough DHA and living on land, tends to get 'big', but not smart.

does this mean we could selectively breed smarter and smarter monkeys (etc) by feeding them extra DHA, over multiple generations?

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Sylvurphlame t1_j9jrs1k wrote

> feeding them extra DHA, over multiple generations?

If you have a few hundred thousands years to spare, sure. It’s possible. Anatomically modern humans, genus Homo, as in “could walk down the street in clothes and you probably would not notice” have been around between 100,000 - 250,000 years depending on who defines “anatomically modern.”

But upright walking ape hominids have been around much longer, like a million plus.

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