Elaine Morgan says we evolved from aquatic apes

445,564 views ・ 2009-07-31

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:12
Well, this is 2009.
0
12160
5000
00:17
And it's the Bicentenary of Charles Darwin.
1
17160
5000
00:22
And all over the world, eminent evolutionists
2
22160
3000
00:25
are anxious to celebrate this.
3
25160
2000
00:27
And what they're planning to do is to enlighten us
4
27160
4000
00:31
on almost every aspect
5
31160
2000
00:33
of Darwin and his life,
6
33160
2000
00:35
and how he changed our thinking.
7
35160
2000
00:37
I say almost every aspect,
8
37160
3000
00:40
because there is one aspect of this story
9
40160
3000
00:43
which they have thrown no light on.
10
43160
3000
00:46
And they seem anxious to skirt around it and step over it
11
46160
3000
00:49
and to talk about something else.
12
49160
2000
00:51
So I'm going to talk about it.
13
51160
2000
00:53
It's the question of, why are we so different from the chimpanzees?
14
53160
6000
00:59
We get the geneticists keeping on telling us
15
59160
2000
01:01
how extremely closely we are related -- hardly any genes of difference,
16
61160
4000
01:05
very, very closely related.
17
65160
3000
01:08
And yet, when you look at the phenotypes,
18
68160
3000
01:11
there's a chimp, there's a man;
19
71160
2000
01:13
they're astoundingly different,
20
73160
2000
01:15
no resemblance at all.
21
75160
2000
01:17
I'm not talking about airy-fairy stuff
22
77160
2000
01:19
about culture or psychology, or behavior.
23
79160
4000
01:23
I'm talking about ground-base, nitty-gritty,
24
83160
3000
01:26
measurable physical differences.
25
86160
2000
01:28
They, that one,
26
88160
2000
01:30
is hairy and walking on four legs.
27
90160
2000
01:32
That one is a naked biped. Why?
28
92160
4000
01:36
I mean --
29
96160
2000
01:38
(Laughter)
30
98160
1000
01:39
if I'm a good Darwinist, I've got to believe
31
99160
2000
01:41
there's a reason for that.
32
101160
2000
01:43
If we changed so much, something must have happened.
33
103160
3000
01:46
What happened?
34
106160
2000
01:48
Now 50 years ago, that was a laughably simple question.
35
108160
3000
01:51
Everybody knew the answer.
36
111160
2000
01:53
They knew what happened.
37
113160
2000
01:55
The ancestor of the apes stayed in the trees;
38
115160
2000
01:57
our ancestors went out onto the plain.
39
117160
3000
02:00
That explained everything.
40
120160
3000
02:03
We had to get up on our legs to peer over the tall grass,
41
123160
3000
02:06
or to chase after animals,
42
126160
2000
02:08
or to free our hands for weapons.
43
128160
2000
02:10
And we got so overheated in the chase
44
130160
4000
02:14
that we had to take off that fur coat and throw it away.
45
134160
4000
02:18
Everybody knew that, for generations.
46
138160
3000
02:21
But then, in the '90s, something began to unravel.
47
141160
4000
02:25
The paleontologists themselves looked a bit more closely
48
145160
4000
02:29
at the accompanying microfauna
49
149160
4000
02:33
that lived in the same time and place as the hominids.
50
153160
4000
02:37
And they weren't savanna species.
51
157160
3000
02:40
And they looked at the herbivores. And they weren't savanna herbivores.
52
160160
4000
02:44
And then they were so clever, they found a way to analyze
53
164160
3000
02:47
fossilized pollen.
54
167160
2000
02:49
Shock, horror.
55
169160
2000
02:51
The fossilized pollen was not of savanna vegetation.
56
171160
5000
02:56
Some of it even came from lianas,
57
176160
2000
02:58
those things that dangle in the middle of the jungle.
58
178160
3000
03:01
So we're left with a situation where
59
181160
2000
03:03
we know that our earliest ancestors
60
183160
4000
03:07
were moving around on four legs in the trees,
61
187160
4000
03:11
before the savanna ecosystem even came into existence.
62
191160
5000
03:16
This is not something I've made up.
63
196160
3000
03:19
It's not a minority theory.
64
199160
2000
03:21
Everybody agrees with it.
65
201160
2000
03:23
Professor Tobias came over from South Africa
66
203160
4000
03:27
and spoke to University College London.
67
207160
3000
03:30
He said, "Everything I've been telling you for the last 20 years,
68
210160
3000
03:33
forget about it. It was wrong.
69
213160
3000
03:36
We've got to go back to square one and start again."
70
216160
4000
03:40
It made him very unpopular. They didn't want to go back to square one.
71
220160
6000
03:46
I mean, it's a terrible thing to happen.
72
226160
2000
03:48
You've got this beautiful paradigm.
73
228160
3000
03:51
You've believed it through generations.
74
231160
2000
03:53
Nobody has questioned it.
75
233160
2000
03:55
You've been constructing fanciful things on top of it,
76
235160
4000
03:59
relying on it to be as solid as a rock.
77
239160
2000
04:01
And now it's whipped away from under you.
78
241160
3000
04:04
What do you do? What does a scientist do in that case?
79
244160
3000
04:07
Well, we know the answer because
80
247160
2000
04:09
Thomas S. Kuhn
81
249160
3000
04:12
wrote a seminal treatise
82
252160
4000
04:16
about this back in 1962.
83
256160
2000
04:18
He said what scientists do
84
258160
2000
04:20
when a paradigm fails
85
260160
4000
04:24
is, guess what -- they carry on as if nothing had happened.
86
264160
3000
04:27
(Laughter)
87
267160
3000
04:30
If they haven't got a paradigm they can't ask the question.
88
270160
3000
04:33
So they say, "Yes it's wrong,
89
273160
2000
04:35
but supposing it was right ..."
90
275160
2000
04:37
(Laughter)
91
277160
2000
04:39
And the only other option open to them
92
279160
4000
04:43
is to stop asking the questions.
93
283160
2000
04:45
So that is what they have done now.
94
285160
4000
04:49
That's why you don't hear them talking about it. It's yesterday's question.
95
289160
3000
04:52
Some of them have even elevated it into a principle.
96
292160
3000
04:55
It's what we ought to be doing.
97
295160
2000
04:57
Aaron Filler from Harvard said,
98
297160
3000
05:00
"Isn't it time we stopped talking about selective pressures?
99
300160
4000
05:04
I mean, why don't we talk about, well, there's chromosomes, and there's genes.
100
304160
3000
05:07
And we just record what we see."
101
307160
3000
05:10
Charles Darwin must be spinning in his grave!
102
310160
3000
05:13
He knew all about that kind of science.
103
313160
3000
05:16
And he called it hypothesis-free science.
104
316160
3000
05:19
And he despised it from the bottom of his heart.
105
319160
3000
05:22
And if you're going to say,
106
322160
3000
05:25
"I'm going to stop talking about selective pressures,"
107
325160
2000
05:27
you can take "The Origin of Species" and throw it out of the window,
108
327160
4000
05:31
for it's about nothing else but selective pressures.
109
331160
2000
05:33
And the irony of it is,
110
333160
2000
05:35
that this is one occasion of a paradigm collapse
111
335160
3000
05:38
where we didn't have to wait for a new paradigm to come up.
112
338160
4000
05:42
There was one waiting in the wings.
113
342160
2000
05:44
It had been waiting there since 1960
114
344160
2000
05:46
when Alister Hardy, a marine biologist,
115
346160
3000
05:49
said, "I think what happened,
116
349160
2000
05:51
perhaps our ancestors
117
351160
2000
05:53
had a more aquatic existence
118
353160
2000
05:55
for some of the time."
119
355160
3000
05:58
He kept it to himself for 30 years.
120
358160
2000
06:00
But then the press got hold of it and all hell broke loose.
121
360160
3000
06:03
All his colleagues said, "This is outrageous.
122
363160
3000
06:06
You've exposed us to public ridicule!
123
366160
4000
06:10
You must never do that again."
124
370160
2000
06:12
And at that time, it became set in stone:
125
372160
3000
06:15
the aquatic theory should be dumped
126
375160
3000
06:18
with the UFOs and the yetis,
127
378160
2000
06:20
as part of the lunatic fringe of science.
128
380160
4000
06:24
Well I don't think that.
129
384160
2000
06:26
I think that Hardy had a lot going for him.
130
386160
2000
06:28
I'd like to talk about just a handful
131
388160
3000
06:31
of what have been called the
132
391160
2000
06:33
hallmarks of mankind,
133
393160
2000
06:35
the things that made us different from everybody else,
134
395160
2000
06:37
and all our relatives.
135
397160
2000
06:39
Let's look at our naked skin.
136
399160
4000
06:43
It's obvious that most of the things we think about
137
403160
4000
06:47
that have lost their body hair, mammals without body hair,
138
407160
3000
06:50
are aquatic ones, like the dugong, the walrus,
139
410160
3000
06:53
the dolphin, the hippopotamus, the manatee.
140
413160
4000
06:57
And a couple of wallowers-in-mud like the babirusa.
141
417160
6000
07:03
And you're tempted to think, well perhaps,
142
423160
2000
07:05
could that be why we are naked?
143
425160
3000
07:08
I suggested it and people said, "No no no.
144
428160
2000
07:10
I mean, look at the elephant.
145
430160
2000
07:12
You've forgotten all about the elephant haven't you?"
146
432160
2000
07:14
So back in 1982 I said,
147
434160
3000
07:17
"Well perhaps the elephant had an aquatic ancestor."
148
437160
3000
07:20
Peals of merry laughter!
149
440160
3000
07:23
"That crazy woman. She's off again. She'll say anything won't she?"
150
443160
3000
07:26
But by now, everybody agrees that the elephant had an aquatic ancestor.
151
446160
6000
07:32
This has come 'round to be that all those naked pachyderms
152
452160
3000
07:35
have aquatic ancestors.
153
455160
2000
07:37
The last exception was supposed to be the rhinoceros.
154
457160
2000
07:39
Last year in Florida they found extinct ancestor of a rhinoceros
155
459160
4000
07:43
and said, "Seems to have spent most of its time in the water."
156
463160
4000
07:47
So this is a close connection between nakedness and water.
157
467160
5000
07:52
As an absolute connection, it only works one way.
158
472160
3000
07:55
You can't say all aquatic animals are naked,
159
475160
4000
07:59
because look at the sea otter.
160
479160
2000
08:01
But you can say
161
481160
2000
08:03
that every animal that has become naked
162
483160
4000
08:07
has been conditioned by water, in its own lifetime,
163
487160
3000
08:10
or the lifetime of its ancestors. I think this is significant.
164
490160
4000
08:14
The only exception is the naked Somalian mole-rat,
165
494160
4000
08:18
which never puts its nose above the surface of the ground.
166
498160
4000
08:22
And take bipedality.
167
502160
2000
08:24
Here you can't find anybody to compare it with,
168
504160
3000
08:27
because we're the only animal that walks upright on two legs.
169
507160
5000
08:32
But you can say this: all the apes and all the monkeys
170
512160
3000
08:35
are capable of walking on two legs,
171
515160
2000
08:37
if they want to, for a short time.
172
517160
2000
08:39
There is only one circumstance in which they
173
519160
3000
08:42
always, all of them, walk on two legs,
174
522160
3000
08:45
and that is when they are wading through water.
175
525160
3000
08:48
Do you think that's significant?
176
528160
2000
08:50
David Attenborough thinks it's significant,
177
530160
2000
08:52
as the possible beginning of our bipedalism.
178
532160
4000
08:56
Look at the fat layer.
179
536160
2000
08:58
We have got, under our skin, a layer of fat, all over:
180
538160
4000
09:02
nothing in the least like that in any other primate.
181
542160
4000
09:06
Why should it be there?
182
546160
2000
09:08
Well they do know, that if you look at other aquatic mammals,
183
548160
3000
09:11
the fat that in most land mammals
184
551160
2000
09:13
is deposited inside the body wall,
185
553160
3000
09:16
around the kidneys and the intestines and so on,
186
556160
4000
09:20
has started to migrate to the outside,
187
560160
2000
09:22
and spread out in a layer inside the skin.
188
562160
4000
09:26
In the whale it's complete:
189
566160
2000
09:28
no fat inside at all, all in blubber outside.
190
568160
3000
09:31
We cannot avoid the suspicion
191
571160
3000
09:34
that in our case it's started to happen.
192
574160
3000
09:37
We have got skin lined with this layer.
193
577160
4000
09:41
It's the only possible explanation of why humans,
194
581160
3000
09:44
if they're very unlucky,
195
584160
3000
09:47
can become grossly obese,
196
587160
3000
09:50
in a way that would be totally impossible for any other primate, physically impossible.
197
590160
4000
09:54
Something very odd, matter-of-factly, never explained.
198
594160
4000
09:58
The question of why we can speak.
199
598160
2000
10:00
We can speak.
200
600160
2000
10:02
And the gorilla can't speak. Why?
201
602160
3000
10:05
Nothing to do with his teeth or his tongue or his lungs or anything like that --
202
605160
4000
10:09
purely has to do with its conscious control of its breath.
203
609160
5000
10:14
You can't even train a gorilla to say "Ah" on request.
204
614160
5000
10:19
The only creatures that have got conscious control of their breath
205
619160
5000
10:24
are the diving animals and the diving birds.
206
624160
3000
10:27
It was an absolute precondition for our being able to speak.
207
627160
5000
10:32
And then again, there is the fact that we are streamlined.
208
632160
4000
10:36
Trying to imagine a diver
209
636160
2000
10:38
diving into water -- hardly makes a splash.
210
638160
2000
10:40
Try to imagine a gorilla
211
640160
3000
10:43
performing the same maneuver,
212
643160
3000
10:46
and you can see that, compared with gorilla,
213
646160
2000
10:48
we are halfway to being shaped like a fish.
214
648160
3000
10:51
I am trying to suggest that, for 40-odd years,
215
651160
3000
10:54
this aquatic idea has been miscategorized as lunatic fringe,
216
654160
5000
10:59
and it is not lunatic fringe.
217
659160
3000
11:02
And the ironic thing about it is that
218
662160
3000
11:05
they are not staving off the aquatic theory
219
665160
3000
11:08
to protect a theory of their own,
220
668160
2000
11:10
which they've all agreed on, and they love.
221
670160
2000
11:12
There is nothing there.
222
672160
2000
11:14
They are staving off the aquatic theory
223
674160
2000
11:16
to protect a vacuum.
224
676160
2000
11:18
(Laughter)
225
678160
3000
11:21
(Applause)
226
681160
5000
11:26
How do they react when I say these things?
227
686160
3000
11:29
One very common reaction I've heard about 20 times
228
689160
4000
11:33
is, "But it was investigated.
229
693160
2000
11:35
They conducted a serious investigation of this at the beginning,
230
695160
4000
11:39
when Hardy put forward his article."
231
699160
4000
11:43
I don't believe it.
232
703160
3000
11:46
For 35 years I've been looking for any evidence
233
706160
3000
11:49
of any incident of that kind,
234
709160
2000
11:51
and I've concluded that that's one of the urban myths.
235
711160
3000
11:54
It's never been done.
236
714160
3000
11:57
I ask people sometimes, and they say,
237
717160
2000
11:59
"I like the aquatic theory!
238
719160
2000
12:01
Everybody likes the aquatic theory.
239
721160
2000
12:03
Of course they don't believe it, but they like it."
240
723160
2000
12:05
Well I say, "Why do you think it's rubbish?"
241
725160
4000
12:09
They say "Well ...
242
729160
2000
12:11
everybody I talk to says it's rubbish.
243
731160
3000
12:14
And they can't all be wrong, can they?"
244
734160
2000
12:16
The answer to that, loud and clear, is, "Yes! They can all be wrong."
245
736160
4000
12:20
History is strewn with the cases when they've all got it wrong.
246
740160
4000
12:24
(Applause)
247
744160
8000
12:32
And if you've got a scientific problem like that,
248
752160
2000
12:34
you can't solve it by holding a head count,
249
754160
3000
12:37
and saying, "More of us say yes than say no."
250
757160
3000
12:40
(Laughter)
251
760160
1000
12:41
Apart from that, some of the heads count more than others.
252
761160
4000
12:45
Some of them have come over.
253
765160
3000
12:48
There was Professor Tobias. He's come over.
254
768160
3000
12:51
Daniel Dennett, he's come over.
255
771160
2000
12:53
Sir David Attenborough, he's come over.
256
773160
4000
12:57
Anybody else out there? Come on in.
257
777160
2000
12:59
The water is lovely.
258
779160
2000
13:01
(Applause)
259
781160
3000
13:04
And now we've got to look to the future.
260
784160
5000
13:09
Ultimately one of three things is going to happen.
261
789160
4000
13:13
Either they will go on for the next 40 years, 50 years, 60 years.
262
793160
5000
13:18
"Yeah well we don't talk about that. Let's talk about something interesting."
263
798160
4000
13:22
That would be very sad.
264
802160
2000
13:24
The second thing that could happen
265
804160
2000
13:26
is that some young genius will arrive,
266
806160
2000
13:28
and say, "I've found it.
267
808160
2000
13:30
It was not the savanna, it was not the water, it was this!"
268
810160
4000
13:34
No sign of that happening either.
269
814160
3000
13:37
I don't think there is a third option.
270
817160
2000
13:39
So the third thing that might happen is
271
819160
3000
13:42
a very beautiful thing.
272
822160
3000
13:45
If you look back at the early years of the last century,
273
825160
3000
13:48
there was a stand-off, a lot of bickering and bad feeling
274
828160
4000
13:52
between the believers in Mendel,
275
832160
2000
13:54
and the believers in Darwin.
276
834160
3000
13:57
It ended with a new synthesis:
277
837160
3000
14:00
Darwin's ideas and Mendel's ideas
278
840160
3000
14:03
blending together.
279
843160
2000
14:05
And I think the same thing will happen here.
280
845160
3000
14:08
You'll get a new synthesis.
281
848160
3000
14:11
Hardy's ideas and Darwin's ideas
282
851160
2000
14:13
will be blended together.
283
853160
2000
14:15
And we can move forward from there,
284
855160
2000
14:17
and really get somewhere.
285
857160
2000
14:19
That would be a beautiful thing.
286
859160
3000
14:22
It would be very nice for me if it happened soon.
287
862160
3000
14:25
(Laughter)
288
865160
11000
14:36
Because I'm older now than George Burns was when he said,
289
876160
5000
14:41
"At my age, I don't even buy green bananas."
290
881160
4000
14:45
(Laughter)
291
885160
6000
14:51
So if it's going to come and it's going to happen,
292
891160
3000
14:54
what's holding it up?
293
894160
2000
14:56
I can tell you that in three words.
294
896160
3000
14:59
Academia says no.
295
899160
4000
15:03
They decided in 1960,
296
903160
2000
15:05
"That belongs with the UFOs and the yetis."
297
905160
3000
15:08
And it's not easy to change their minds.
298
908160
4000
15:12
The professional journals
299
912160
2000
15:14
won't touch it with a barge pole.
300
914160
2000
15:16
The textbooks don't mention it.
301
916160
3000
15:19
The syllabus doesn't mention even the fact that we're naked,
302
919160
3000
15:22
let alone look for a reason to it.
303
922160
3000
15:25
"Horizon," which takes its cue from the academics,
304
925160
3000
15:28
won't touch it with a barge pole.
305
928160
2000
15:30
So we never hear the case put for it,
306
930160
4000
15:34
except in jocular references
307
934160
3000
15:37
to people on the lunatic fringe.
308
937160
2000
15:39
I don't know quite where this diktat comes from.
309
939160
6000
15:45
Somebody up there
310
945160
2000
15:47
is issuing the commandment,
311
947160
4000
15:51
"Thou shalt not believe in the aquatic theory.
312
951160
4000
15:55
And if you hope to make progress in this profession,
313
955160
3000
15:58
and you do believe it, you'd better keep it to yourself,
314
958160
4000
16:02
because it will get in your way."
315
962160
2000
16:04
So I get the impression that some parts
316
964160
3000
16:07
of the scientific establishment
317
967160
3000
16:10
are morphing into a kind of priesthood.
318
970160
4000
16:14
But you know, that makes me feel good,
319
974160
4000
16:18
because Richard Dawkins has told us
320
978160
3000
16:21
how to treat a priesthood.
321
981160
2000
16:23
(Laughter)
322
983160
2000
16:25
He says, "Firstly, you've got to refuse to give it
323
985160
3000
16:28
all the excessive awe and reverence
324
988160
3000
16:31
it's been trained to receive."
325
991160
2000
16:33
Right. I'll go ahead with that.
326
993160
2000
16:35
And secondly, he says,
327
995160
2000
16:37
"You must never be afraid to rock the boat."
328
997160
3000
16:40
I'll go along with that too.
329
1000160
2000
16:42
Thank you very much.
330
1002160
2000
16:44
(Applause)
331
1004160
20000
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7