Well perhaps the elephant had an aquatic ancestor.

Did they mix with ancestors of present day people?

So back in 1982 I said, Well perhaps the elephant had an aquatic ancestor.

But by now, everybody agrees that the elephant had an aquatic ancestor.

You are a hominid three million years ago walking on the plains of Africa.

No matter how they got there, those people who get there became the ancestors of today's Americans.

Now I said back in our little thought experiment, you're a hominid walking on the plains of Africa.

Australopithecus afarensis is an extinct hominid that lived between 3.9 and 2.9 million years ago.

So we can then ask for Denisovans the same things as for the Neanderthals Did they mix with ancestors of present day people?

But I think from the point of view of a Neanderthal, there would have been a lot of disapproval of the wimpish choppers that we now have.

So this presumably means that these Denisovans had been more widespread in the past, since we don't think that the ancestors of Melanesians were ever in Siberia.

So this presumably means that these Denisovans had been more widespread in the past, since we don't think that the ancestors of Melanesians were ever in Siberia.

Savor it for a moment. Now consider this None of our modern human ancestors ever breathed anything like it and, the way things are going, nor will our descendants.

Elaine Morgan is a tenacious proponent of the aquatic ape hypothesis the idea that humans evolved from primate ancestors who dwelt in watery habitats. Hear her spirited defense of the idea and her theory on why mainstream science doesn't take it seriously.