No biologist or serious anthropologist doubts any more that our evolution went (schematically & predom.) from Mio-Pliocene aquarboreal hominoids-australopiths (vertical waders-climbers in swamp forests) to early-Pleistocene shallow-slow diving Homo erectus to mid-Pleistocene diving-wading to late-Pleistocene wading-walking sapiens.
More hypothetical is why & how hominids split. I'd think
-India approaching Asia c 30 Ma caused the cercopithecoid/hominoid split (N/S),
-India further under Asia c 20 Ma caused the lesser/great ape split (E/W): hominoids colonized the western Tethys coastal forests,
-the Mesopotamian Seaway closure c 15 Ma caused the hominid/pongid split (W/E): pongids forced hylobatids higher into the trees,
-hominids in the Tethys=Med.Sea colonized the incipient Red Sea, -Gorilla/Homo-Pan split c 8 Ma, when Gorilla followed the incipient Rift: Pliocene gracile afarensis->Pleist.robust bosei,
-Pan/Homo split c 5 Ma when the Red Sea opened into the Gulf: Pliocene Homo followed the S-Asian coastal forests, Pan the E-Afr.coastal forests:
Pliocene gracile africanus->Pleist.robust robustus (Pan//Gorilla),
-Pleistocene coolings made erectus-like Homo shallow-divers along the Indian Ocean (+ inland branches along rivers/lakes), later also Med.Sea etc.
?? Si non é vero...
In any case, no antelope runners! :-D

On Saturday, April 16, 2022 at 9:22:52 AM UTC-4, littor...@gmail.com wrote:
> No biologist or serious anthropologist doubts

(Mickey Mouse & Donald Duck)

any more that our evolution went (schematically & predom.) from Mio-Pliocene aquarboreal hominoids-australopiths (vertical waders-climbers in swamp forests) to early-Pleistocene shallow-slow diving Homo erectus to mid-Pleistocene diving-wading to late-Pleistocene wading-walking sapiens.
> More hypothetical is why & how hominids split. I'd think
> -India approaching Asia c 30 Ma caused the cercopithecoid/hominoid split (N/S),
> -India further under Asia c 20 Ma caused the lesser/great ape split (E/W): hominoids colonized the western Tethys coastal forests,
> -the Mesopotamian Seaway closure c 15 Ma caused the hominid/pongid split (W/E): pongids forced hylobatids higher into the trees,
> -hominids in the Tethys=Med.Sea colonized the incipient Red Sea, -Gorilla/Homo-Pan split c 8 Ma, when Gorilla followed the incipient Rift: Pliocene gracile afarensis->Pleist.robust bosei,
> -Pan/Homo split c 5 Ma when the Red Sea opened into the Gulf: Pliocene Homo followed the S-Asian coastal forests, Pan the E-Afr.coastal forests:
> Pliocene gracile africanus->Pleist.robust robustus (Pan//Gorilla),
> -Pleistocene coolings made erectus-like Homo shallow-divers along the Indian Ocean (+ inland branches along rivers/lakes), later also Med.Sea etc.
> ?? Si non é vero...
> In any case, no antelope runners! :-D

Irish elk (POS divers) & saiga (big nose backfloaters) evaded those mermaids easily, but the ones on the straw savanna were safe, since Homo ran away from savannas into the Ocean where they lived underwater, except while surfing.