-Coastal diaspora after Homo & Pan split ~5 Ma
-Human & ape evolution based on convergences

We compare human behavior, anatomy, physiology & DNA to other animals.
Features present in different combinations in shallow-water animals (but not in chimps, not in typical savanna mammals):
large brain, slow-diving skills, breath control, flat face, small mouth & biting muscles (MYH16 loss), tongue bone descent, projecting nose, poor sense of smell, tools & handiness, late puberty, head-spine-legs in 1 line, rel.flat feet, fur loss, SC fat, salt sweat & tears, reduced climbing, high needs of water/sodium/iodine/poly-unsat.FAs(DHA) etc.

Beachcombing-wading-diving for food explains typical Homo traits (versus australopiths & apes) better than forest or plain-dwelling:
fruits & (coco)nuts, turtle/bird/eggs, shell- & crayfish, water(side)plants, herbivores in shallow water, stranded whales...

Pleistocene Homo populations spread along lakes, shores & rivers incl.18 km oversea to Flores >1 Ma.
Tools & fossils 2.5-0.1 Ma are found amid shells near Rift valley lakes & (although sea-level changes hinder fossilisation) Eurasian & African coasts: Mojokerto, Dungo V Baia Farta, Terra Amata, Table Bay, Pakefield, Eritrea etc.
Glacials = maximal aquaticness?

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-pachyosteosclerosis
-econiche Homo (Littoral Theory of Pleistocene Homo = AAT strict)
-aquarboreal (Aquarboreal Theory of Mio-Pliocene apes incl.australopiths, aqua=water,arbor=tree)

P.Tobias http://users.ugent.be/~mvaneech/outthere
Symposium 1999 Water & Human Evolution http://allserv.rug.ac.be/~mvaneech/Symposium.htm
M.Westenhofer 1942 Der Eigenweg des Menschen. Mannstaede
A.Hardy 1960 Was Man more aquatic in the past? NS 7:624
M.Roede..1991 The Aquatic Ape: Fact or Fiction? Souvenir
E.Morgan 1997 The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis. Souvenir
M.Verhaegen..2002 Aquarboreal ancestors? TREE 17:212
S.Cunnane 2005 Survival of the Fattest. World Scientific
M.Vaneechoutte..2011 Was Man more aquatic in the past? Bentham ebook