Where can I get some of them swimming monkeys?
They’d be really funny, I bet, specially if you turned 'em loose in the cement pond.
Northern Piper:
Well . . . I don’t think this holds water. (Sorry.) It’s pretty much impossible to verbally communicate underwater. A good portion of SCUBA training is learning hand signals. Signs and gestures are about the only useful means of communication underwater.
With all due respect, andros, I don’t think Northern Piper was referring to speech underwater. When swimming with other people, when we wish to communicate with them, we must surface and speak. Using hand gestures makes it very difficult to stay afloat; when treading water, we use all four limbs. Voices carry very well over the surface of the water, incidentally.
It’s also very easy for a human to float on one’s back, using little effort or energy. It’s easy to hold a conversation with a nearby person while doing so. When I float on my back, I like to keep one ear above the water to hear what’s going on topside; I keep my other ear under water to hear what’s happening below me. Our ears are situated quite nicely for doing this, and getting a little water in our ears won’t hurt anything. Compare this to the ears of dogs, for example. All mammals can swim to some extent, but relatively few dive or swim while completely submerged.
As far as speaking underwater, you’re correct: unlike dolphins or whales, people aren’t built for it at all. We’re more like otters or beavers or polar bears.
Then again, otters and beavers and bears are pretty furry, and we are not. But then again, again, a heavy wet pelt must feel a lot like a pair of soaking wet jeans: not very conducive to strolling around on land, especially for a species as (relatively) un-muscular as we are. It would be difficult to climb a tree wearing either a soaking wet denim body suit or a soaking wet fur coat.
Observe children at the beach (or me at the beach). We go in the water for a while, come out for a while, go back in for a while. In, out, in, out. Not having a pelt is an advantage in a warm climate when you’re constantly going in and out of the water. The less fur you have in a warm climate, the more quickly your skin dries and stabilizes your body temperature after coming out of the water.
A full head of hair is a definite advantage for humans who swim. The head is the part most often exposed to the sun because swimming humans have their heads above water most of the time. The sun is even brighter when you’re in or near water because of the reflection from the water’s surface.
:shrug: What can I say? I hadn’t had enough coffee. You’re right, of course.
Actually, taphonomy dictates that littoral zones preserve fossils much better than most other habitats, as remains are often quickly deposited in an anaerobic condition for the very same reasons that you mentioned.
-ellis
Holly wrote:
I’ll observe ya at the beach, if it’s a nude beach. 