bird-dino postures

uncinate process in birds

JR Codd 2010 Compar.Biochem.Physiol.A156:303-8
Uncinate processes in birds: morphology, physiology, and function

The avian respiratory system is remarkable in terms of its complexity &
efficiency. The evolution of this system with its unique lung morphology &
physiology has contributed to birds being one of the most successful
vertebrate lineages.
Despite holding the attention of the scientific community for a long time,
much remains to be discovered about the complexities of this system. Recent
advances have highlighted the important role that accessory breathing
structures, the uncinate processes, play in understanding how this system
functions & evolved.
Almost all spp of extant bird have uncinate processes extending from the
mid-point of the vertebral ribs. These processes are integral to the
mechanics of ventilation in birds, being active in both in- & expiration,
but also playing some role during locomotion.
The morphological variation in the uncinate processes suggests that the
constraints placed on the body by adaptations to different forms of
locomotion are key to understanding differences in how birds breathe.
These processes also occur in the theropod dinosaurs, providing further
evidence that they are the ancestors of modern birds, but also highlighting
the intrinsic flexibility in the ventilatory systems of these animals.
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death pose of long necked dinos & posture of resting geese: sleeping with head on back above abd. air sacs (parallel to backfloating & whale blowhole on back) while floating or on nest, the eyes see behind when awake but static, able to see predators which approach from behind. Uncinate processes probably evolved as air sac flexible cages allowing leaping-breathing like kangaroos) but bellows not deflating during sleep which would result in sinking.
kangaroo leap breathe

Amazing argonaut octopus: here

Air Air everywhere

Diving physiology bio-chem: respiration, apnea

Divers should not hyperventilate causing alkalosis in blood, due to susceptibility to sudden black-out from lack of oxygen (with no chemoreceptor warning).
Rather they should be neutral pH, during dive the accumulation of carbon dioxide produces acidosis in the blood (even if there is abundant oxygen) which in MDR (mammalian divers reflex) is a safer mode, high CO2 triggers air hunger (oxygen conservation) and diaphragmatic contractions pump O2 & CO2 around efficiently.


REFINING THE BREATH by DOUG KELLER 2007

And then there are times when we anticipate physical stress and begin to breathe harder, using the chest muscles. The problem is that this situation of persistent mental and emotional stress has become more the rule of daily life than the exception. The body is on constant alert via the sympathetic nervous system, but the physical exertion — and the need for accelerated breathing — never comes. As a result, we’ve both pumped in more oxygen and pumped out carbon dioxide in this process of hyperventilation, and a vital chemical balance in the body has been seriously upset.

Here begins the vicious cycle that is so familiar to hyperventilators. The harder we breathe, the more oxygen-starved we feel, and we can’t ‘catch’ our breath. This is not for lack of oxygen, but because so much carbon dioxide has been forced out in the process of overbreathing. The presence of carbon dioxide in our blood allows the hemoglobins to transport oxygen to the body’s tissues. If too much carbon dioxide is ‘blown off’ by hyperventilation, the blood becomes alkaline, and the hemoglobin can’t release the oxygen molecules, which are chemically ‘stuck’ to it. The blood is carrying around plenty of oxygen: the problem is that the body can’t get any of it!
Carbon dioxide also provides the chemical message in the blood that leads us to take our next breath. At the end of the exhalation, there is a natural, restful pause before we breathe in again. During that pause, carbon dioxide builds up in the blood at the same time that oxygen is being released into the tissues. When it reaches a certain level, the respiratory center of the brain sends a signal through the phrenic nerve to the diaphragm to take another breath.

In the normal course of breathing, the entire process of respiration is driven by carbon dioxide, from the first neurochemical impulse that initiates the inhalation, to the chemical balancing act in the blood that delivers oxygen to the body. All of this happens without our having to think about or consciously direct the process, and the whole process works astoundingly well, with carbon dioxide playing a central role from beginning to end.

That, of course, describes the natural process of the breath, in which the conscious mind, with its slurry of desire, emotion and expectation, is not factored in. But what happens when we overbreathe? Usually an excess of carbon dioxide in the blood tells us to take another breath in, and the process is quite relaxed. But when carbon dioxide drops below a certain level (due to anticipatory fast hard breathing), the message from the body — which is now not receiving the oxygen it needs — is that we are suffocating! And so the breath is driven by the body’s panic, and we breathe harder, making the situation worse instead of better. A subtle chemical imbalance soon becomes a full-blown panic attack. The age-old cure for panic attacks — to breathe into a paper bag — has a very good biochemical basis: it’s meant to increase the levels of carbon dioxide by re-breathing the same air, until the proper balance is restored.

When it comes to stressful breathing patterns, or patterns of ‘overbreathing, certainly the vicious cycle of the biochemistry of hyperventilation plays the part of gasoline thrown on the fire. Mental anticipation and anxiety, however, is the match that lights the fire.
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So relax, and just glow a little. ;)

h/t kelp princess @ Deeper Blue

Skull density in hominids

Gauld SC 1996 AJPA 100:411-426
Allometric patterns of cranial bone thickness in fossil hominids

Skull thickness in He is more than twice that of other primates of
comparable body size, Hn is intermediate, Hs is still above most other
primates, and A.africanus is somewhat above other equally-sized primates,
but I need more figures of other apiths, esp. robust ones.

Extraordinarily thick skull vaults are typically (AFAIK exclusively) seen in
shallow slow parttime diving animals. Slow divers in sea water (density c
1.024) are expected to have much thicker skulls than those in freshwater.
Alan Shabel found that in dentitions & enamel thickness apiths resembled
mungoes & other carnivores that fed (partly) on hard-shelled invertebrates.
Might africanus (& other apiths??) have parttime dived (or ducked) for
bottom shell+crayfish in the wetlands & swamp forests where they lived??
We need a lot more measurements of skull thicknesses esp. of fossil
hominids, but also of other animals.

I made a graph (somebody did it for me) with
- x-axis = the cubic root of the body weight of different primate spp,
- y-axis = their skull thickness.
It was almost a straight line, with small spp a bit below that line,
medium-sized a bit above (esp.orang & chimp), and very large ones (gorilla)
a bit lower.
But there were 3 obvious exceptions:
- He was far above that line (but it might have been heavier than the usual
estimation of c 50 kg),
- Hs was clearly above it,
- A.africanus was also clearly above it (depending on its body weight, which
might be a bit higher IMO than usu.estimated).
Other data suggest Hn was intermediate between He & Hn, but I still lack
enough comparable data on apiths, Ardipith etc.

Does anybody know where to find more data? MV @ AAT
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This fits the pattern -

early hominoid, foraging on pond surface AHV aquatic herbs, congo lowland gorillas raking high-protein hydrocharis and yanking up sedges for their rhyzomes, not dunking their faces nor seeking benthic foods, with large inflatable laryngeal air sacs for partial flotation, with lightweight skulls. Apith afarensis similar, but in Rift valley, less fruit trees, more sedges.

Apith africanus ate more water lily rhyzomes, reaching below water so smaller air sacs and denser skull, more invertebrate foods crayfish/snails and small vertebrates, more high fruit trees. Rift - So. Africa shallow lakes?

Human ancestors similar, but more tidal saltwater, lost air sacs and gained dense skull, ate tidal mangrove oysters at lagoons, more shrub berries, less high fruit trees, Medit. zone?
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Myrica gale is a flowering plant native to Europe, with sweet resinous scent, and is a traditional insect repellent, used by campers to keep biting insects out of tents. Sweet Gale can grow in a narrow band in the intertidal zone, especially if it has some logs, washed down into the estuary on which to establish itself. It is a favorite food of beavers and low beaver dams can be found in the intertidal zone if sufficient sweet gale is present. The ponds thus formed are often completely submerged at high tide but retain water at low tide and provide deep enough water to provide a refuge for fish, including juvenile salmon where the water is too deep for predation by wading birds. wiki
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Ear wax & Scent: Difference of appocrine sweat glands in Europeans, Africans and Asians
scent, ear wax

rice, milk, alcohol in ancient Eurasians

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Gorilla hybrids, Ardi party @ Lawnchair anthropology
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Molars in hominoids
Gorilla and chimp molars evert earlier than orang and human due to more forest ground foraging (parallel with knucklewalking), orang probably has primitive hominoid condition, human also but even more so do to beaver lodge - hut/cave nesting & aquatic foraging & mainly food processing & cooking.

Speaking of dense bones and waterside herbivores, article on neolithic dugong & fishing rituals:
http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/general/excavation-uncovers-ritual-site-1.523925

Note to a colleague re. the ARC

A fine diving spot: Deans Blue Hole, Bahamas
Divers paradise
Myostatin protein regulates muscle build, effect on myoglobin, brain, jaws?
myostatin vs follistatin
nose nerves, inf conchae, PSR
Physis: a marine journal, CIEE in Bonaire
Physis
Blue planet divers site, diver list
Blue Planet Divers
Shoal/slow/shallow, sandbar, reef, wave patterns at shallows
Shoal, lagoon, Ayre/lake/laut/loch
Ayre

The derivation of the word ayre is from Old Norse. It refers to a shallow bay/lake being separate from the sea by a sandspit. This may partly cut off a sheltered stretch of water from the sea to form a shallow freshwater loch.[2] This word is still in use for the particular landform in the Northern Isles of Scotland.

In Malay/Indonesian, ayer or air means water, laut means lake or sea.


The post-coastal Hadza Hunter/Gatherer camps
Hadza

Isotope markers in bone: Seal (high) vs mollusk (low) in human diet, iris bulbs, at South African coastal Holocene sites
South Africa coastal hunting and gathering diet
Through chemical analysis of bone collagen from 69 skeletons dated from 4,500 to 2,000 years before present, what foods were you able to determine that Holocene populations in Robberg/Plettenberg and the Matjes River Rock Shelter were consuming?
In this area, people were able to choose from a long menu of foods including venison and the meat of other wild animals, berries, edible roots and corms, particularly of plants in the iris family, seafood including shellfish, fish, seabirds, stranded dolphins or whales, and much else. All these items have been identified in excavated food remains. It is, however, harder to know their relative importance. Neither conventional archaeological techniques nor isotope analysis (for different reasons) permit precise quantification of individual foods, but it is clear from the high ratios of 15N/14N in their bones that people buried at Robberg/ Plettenberg Bay ate unusually large quantities of high trophic level [animals high on the food chain] marine foods, very likely the meat of seals and large predatory fish caught in the deep waters surrounding the Robberg Peninsula. Bone tissue accumulates over many years, so this was a long-term dietary pattern. People buried at Matjes River Rock Shelter, on the other hand, ate much more mixed diets, with more terrestrial food or low trophic level [low on the food chain] marine foods, such as shellfish.

Why do you think their diets were different? Why is this finding important or surprising?
Today, there is a seal colony on the Robberg Peninsula, and it was probably there in the past as well. (This inference is based on the age distribution of seals that ancient people butchered and ate.) Mainland seal colonies are relatively rare (most colonies are on offshore islands, which offer protection from predators), so this would have been a special opportunity for hunter-gatherers--a type of living larder. In addition, the peninsula juts out into deep water, allowing access to fish not usually caught by shore-based anglers. People who lived at Robberg/Plettenberg Bay made the most of their good fortune, while people who lived at Matjes River Rock Shelter didn't have these advantages. What's surprising about it is the degree of specialisation in local resources, from which we can infer that these people were living within relatively small areas, rather than trekking regularly across large areas of landscape. This is unexpected, given the very mobile lifestyle of most recent southern African hunter-gatherers.

How does ethnographic research contribute to the analysis of Stone Age societies in South Africa?
Later Stone Age societies were the ancestors of communities who continued to live a foraging lifestyle, in the Kalahari and elsewhere, into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Studies of Kalahari foragers have been of enormous importance in anthropology in recent decades. In some respects, there are clear similarities between recent and ancient southern African hunter-gatherers, and the ethnographies have provided valuable insights into earlier societies. For example, aspects of belief systems recorded in the Kalahari in the twentieth century are also expressed in rock paintings that may be several thousand years old.

What does the painted seal scapula found in the cave at Knysna tell us about the hunter-gatherer society that created it?
This is a unique artifact--it's the only painted bone we have from South Africa, so interpretation must be cautious. Paintings on the walls of caves and rock shelters, however, expressed aspects of people's belief systems, including ideas about relationships between animals and humans in this world and in the spirit world. The animals depicted are usually larger species charged with symbolic power. The choice of a seal scapula and the images painted on it, of which the left-hand one, at least, looks very seal-like, hints that seals may have been important in a spiritual, as well as an economic sense.

You describe the societies as succumbing to "opportunistic sedentism." What do you mean by this, and why is it significant? How might being sedentary affect other aspects of life?
The idea is that people might initially have practiced a degree of sedentism in areas where there were rich resources, because there was no need to move. Early on, this is likely to have been a flexible pattern. When population densities rose, and there were limited options for moving, settlement patterns became more fixed--increasing our chances of recognizing them in the archaeology. Cross-culturally, more settled lifestyles require people to develop new methods of dealing with conflict, they allow storage of food or other commodities, opening up the possibility of differential access to resources and thus to social inequality. Southern Cape peoples probably didn't go very far down this road, but these are interesting questions.
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Owl monkeys, Aotus spp: nocturnal, huge tarsier/lemur-like eyes, thyroid, low metabolism, retro? Have same NeuA5 sialic acid as humans, so susceptible to human type malaria but brains small, and furry, retro? Original morph of NWM/OWM/apes, before malaria?
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a786187256
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090427214059AAhcd0T
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=com.ubuntu:en-US:official&hs=ELV&q=owl+monkey+sialic+acid&start=10&sa=N

Java man
http://www.planetmole.org/indonesian-news/sangiran-museum-sragen-central-java.html
Prehistory of leprosy
http://johnhawks.net/weblog/reviews/genomics/disease/leprosy-monot-2009-phylogeography.html

"How long should a dive last? A simple model of foraging decisions by breath-hold divers in a patchy environment" Authors: Thompson D.; Fedak M.A.
Source: Animal Behaviour, Volume 61, Number 2, February 2001, pp. 287-296(10) Pub: Elsevier
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W9W-45BC899-7S&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=07b1166ce0f70cea4937c616fee8c25b

Effects of increased swimming costs on foraging behavior and efficiency of captive Steller sea lions: Evidence for behavioral plasticity in the recovery phase of dives
Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, Volume 333, Issue 2, 13 June 2006, Pages 306-314 L.A. Cornick, S.D. Inglis, K. Willis, M. Horning
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T8F-4JBGKN3-3&_user=10&_coverDate=06%2F13%2F2006&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=article&_cdi=5085&_sort=v&_docanchor=&view=c&_ct=34&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=05c93e6a3219bcfc6d5c4d49120eaba8

Why do macaroni penguins choose shallow body angles that result in longer descent and ascent durations? Authors: Katsufumi Sato, Jean-Benot Charrassin, Charles-André Bost, Yasuhiko Naito1
http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/abstract/207/23/4057


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/.../18987289
Repetitive paired stimulation of nasotrigeminal and peripheral chemoreceptor afferents cause progressive potentiation of the diving bradycardia.
Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2008 Nov 5;
Authors: Rozloznik M, Paton JF, Dutschmann M
The hallmarks of the mammalian diving response are protective apnea and bradycardia. These cardio-respiratory adaptations can be mimicked by stimulation the trigeminal ethmoidal nerve (EN5) and reflect oxygen conserving mechanisms during breath-hold dives. Increasing drive from peripheral chemoreceptors during sustained dives was reported to enhance the diving bradycardia. The underlying neuronal mechanisms, however, are unknown. In the present study, expression and plasticity of EN5-bradycardias after paired stimulation of the EN5 and peripheral chemoreceptors was investigated in the in situ working heart-brainstem preparation. Paired stimulations enhanced significantly the bradycardic responses compared to EN5-evoked bradycardia using sub-maxim…

http://www.immersionlibre.fr/

Bubbles and bubble rings:
bubblelogics

Prevalence and severity of external auditory exostoses in breath-hold divers
To explore the prevalence and severity of external auditory exostoses in a population of experienced breath-hold divers, and to compare these to the same parameters within surfing and self-contained underwater breathing apparatus diving populations.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18346299&dopt=Abstract

Indirect evidence for arterial chemoreceptor reflex facilitation
by face immersion in man
It is concluded that the intensification is caused by chemoreceptor reflex facilitation, due to stimulation of trigeminal receptors in the face.

The initiation and maintenance of bradycardia in a diving mammal
the muskrat, Ondatra zibethica
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/469759&dopt=Abstract

Extremes in human breath hold facial immersion bradycardia
Although the average human response to apneic facial immersion in ice water is a reduction in heart rate from 70 to 45 beats/min, a small proportion of healthy subjects develop diving bradycardia to less than 20 beats/min. Twenty-seven healthy subjects performed resting, seated, 30-s mid-inspiratory breath hold, facial immersion in a basin of water. Heart rate dropped more when the water temperature was 1 degree C than at 24 degrees C. Five subjects developed asymptomatic diving bradycardia to less than 15 beats/min. One physically active individual consistently had dive heart rates as low as 5.6 beats/min.

The nose is the source of many powerful reflexes, including the diving response, sneeze and sniff reflexes, and reflexes affecting autonomic nervous function to the cardiovascular system, airways in the lungs, the larynx, and other organs. The physiology of the nose 1986

The water content and glucose concentration in the whole blood of marine mammals were found to be correlated to red blood cell concentration. Because hematocrit (Hct) undergoes significant periodic shifts in these mammals during periods of apnea and/or diving, the measured values of whole blood glucose change due to alterations in Hct, independent of shifts in metabolite regulatory pathways. In contrast to humans, where red blood cell and plasma glucose concentrations are equivalent, in most other mammalian species red blood cell glucose concentration is much lower than that in plasma.
Influence of hematocrit on whole blood glucose levels: new evidence from marine mammals

Passive Flooding Of Paranasal Sinuses
And Middle Ears As A Method Of Equalisation In Extreme Breath-hold Diving
We describe a diver who, by training, is capable of allowing passive flooding of the sinuses and middle ear with (sea) water during descent, by suppressing protective (parasympathetic) reflexes during this process.
http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2008/02/28/bjsm.2007.043679.abstract

Adaptations to deep breath-hold diving: respiratory and circulatory mechanics
Respiration and circulation in diving mammals are characterized by interrelated adaptations of structure, function, and behavior that are incompletely described and understood. This speculative survey touches some of them. a) Arterial blood flow can be controlled by vasoconstriction not only in arterioles but also in large arteries. The latter physiology is not well known. b) Mechanisms that might regulate and limit nitrogen uptake are not clear, although Scholander's suggestion that airspaces become gas-free during deep dives is still accepted. c) Systemic arterial retes may be able to store oxygenated blood in some diving mammals. If so, O2 in the lung might be 'skimmed off' early in a dive, leaving the N2 behind. d) Variable clusters of interdependent adaptations in diving mammals include compliant chest walls that avoid thoracic squeeze; inspiratory breath holds that maintain high lung volumes; large tidal volumes that nearly empty the lung at end-expiration...

Renal response to head-out water immersion in Korean women divers
Head-out water immersion (HOI) induces a profound diuresis and natriuresis, which may endanger the body fluid balance of breath-hold divers during prolonged diving work.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8507293&dopt=Abstract

An intact glutamatergic trigeminal pathway is essential for the cardiac response to simulated diving http://ajpregu.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/269/3/R669

Autonomic response to auditory stimulation
Autonomic and behavioral response to fear stimulation (sudden noise 80 dB) was studied in 12 sleeping infants at ages 8-50 weeks. The aim of the present study was to identify a possible passive defense response in infants. The response, which is widespread in birds and mammals, is characterized by apnea and bradycardia with circulatory changes as seen during the forced diving response.

Trigeminal mediation of the diving response in the muskrat
These data implicate trigeminal neurons in the medullary dorsal horn as modulators of autonomic activity, especially in the cardiorespiratory adjustments after nasal stimulation.
PMID: 1760738 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
h/t Ivo @ http://apnea.cz/media.html?Lang=EN&
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Hello (...) [slightly modified]

Do you have an opinion on these?

Chromosome 2 is unique to humans amongst hominoids, it contains the genes/SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) for:
- Photic sneeze (Dark adaptation, O2/CO2 apnea regulation?)
- Hypothyroidsm (Ecto/endo-thermic adipocity, Iodine regulation?)
- Hemochromatosis (Bone density, Iron regulation?)

I do not view that as mere coincidence.

Regarding baby backfloating in warm sunlit lagoons:
Human babies have full envelope of SC white fat (insulatory) but dorsal brown fat, which provides warmth to the only sun-shaded area that also is exposed to the coolest proximal water, infant humans (and seals) AFAIK don't shiver for warmth (not useful for hydrostatic backfloating in water). Breastfeeding human infants produce/accumulate Hydrogen (nature's most buoyant material) in the gut, and this, combined with (otherwise healthy) infant colic (GI gas entrapment while backfloating and associated crying) and abundant white SC fat, would provide sufficient buoyancy in dense warm calm saltwater to allow parental foraging without hindrance, in part resulting in loss of fur coat.

Regarding human endurance locomotion: At lagoons, dive foraging would be typical, but in between optimal lagoons, shoreline walking/wading/jogging would be typical due to hazards of rough surf, cold water, box jellyfish, sharks/crocs, etc. This would be maintained during inland seasonal migrations where diving was limited.

Regarding islanding: I think that similar to how Gibralter functioned as a gateway for EurAsian macaques into north Africa, I think the Afar-Eritrea-Yemen region functioned as a gateway to and from EurAsia. The 'bridge' linking Yemen is about 100m deep, about the depth of sea level drop at various glacial periods, (disregarding lack of data on local tectonic changes). I do not view the Danakil alps region as "the refuge", but rather as a periodic gateway, similar to Gibralter and Sinai, though it may have been a stopover with a residual population, similar to today's Barbary macaques at Gibralter.

I haven't found any evidence to contradict the dark adaptation-dive / sunlight surface exhale idea (Aquaphotic Respiratory Cycle), except that it is not used today by modern human divers. I consider it plausible that during the MSC human ancestors separated from the other apes due to being trapped in the Medit. basin, where a unique environment produced selection for a unique hominid different from the others. The low UV present, similar to today's Dead Sea, may have selected for light skin tone or less fur, and unusual eyes (exposed white eye sclerae), and plausibly the sun sneeze, and also increased availability of stone, both for tools and climbing. Later filling of the basin would send various human-types in different directions, to adapt to local conditions with different morphotypes, many would go extinct later.

DD

ps. I've stepped away from AAT yahoogroup for a bit, but continue to skim the threads.

MSC refill
5.6 - 5.33ma MSC may have refilled in 2 years, H/P split 5 - 7ma
picture of Medit MSC refill 5.33ma

Marine-Rift Conduit

Ardi at Yardi: fossil hominin http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2009/10/01/ardipithecus-we-meet-at-last/
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113387960

Proconsul, Morotopith: Uganda, 21-20ma, upright spine
Orangs split 20ma
Gorilla split 8ma
Oreopithecus: Sardinia island, 9 - 7ma, very long arms, tree climbing, stilted biped.
Sahelanthropus: Chad, 7 - 6ma (SN: 7/13/02, p. 19)
Orrorin: 6ma (SN: 7/14/01, p. 20)
Ardipithecus ramidus: 4.4ma Rift - Afar
Kenyanthropus 3.5ma: (SN: 3/24/01, p. 180)
Ardipithecus kadabba: 5.8 - 5.2ma
Australopithecus afarensis: 3.2ma Lucy, Selam
Homo 2.4ma
ardi pic
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/52228/title/Evolution%E2%80%99s_Bad_Girl
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Best article on MSC: MSC

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Shallow-water habitats as sources of fallback foods for hominins
R Wrangham, D Cheney, R Seyfarth & E Sarmiento 2009 AJPA 140:630-642

Underground/underwater Storage Organs (rhyzomes) consumed
by hominins could have included both underwater and underground storage
organs, ie, from both aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Shallow aquatic
habitats tend to offer high plant growth rates, high densities, and
relatively continuous availability throughout the year.

This study differs from traditional savanna chimpanzee models
of hominin origins by proposing that access to aquatic habitats was a
necessary condition for adaptation to savanna habitats. It also raises the
possibility that harvesting efficiency in shallow water promoted adaptations
for habitual bipedality in early hominins.
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Similarities of African apes and dolphins in group behavior
http://escholarship.org/uc/item/5gv9w4jw#


But note this from Molly: Why is the discussion always between chimps and humans? Orangs are more intelligent than chimps and we share a type C viral gene with them that other apes don’t have. How do they fit in the ancestor picture?
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Scientists have tallied up genes that were accidentally duplicated in our lineage, for example, so that we now have more copies of them than do other primates. They've also identified genes that became pseudogenes. And some genes in humans got their start as noncoding DNA in other primates. Recently Aoife McLysaght of the Smurfit Institute of Genetics at Trinity College Dublin discovered three proteins produced by humans that aren't found in our closest non-human relatives. McLysaght then discovered that the genes for these three human proteins correspond almost precisely to stretches of noncoding DNA in the other species. It appears that mutations transformed these pieces of genetic material into genes capable of making proteins. (per Carl Zimmer) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/beta/evolution/ten-great-advances-evolution.html




This image was added by magellan on Aug 2, 2003 7:55 AM, Dave's Garden http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/21902/
"Hardy Water Lily \\\'Arc en Ceil\\\' best known for its unusual variegated green leaves mottled with pink, cream and sometimes red. Produces many blooms which open light pink and change to off white."


Goubbat al Kharab (Gebt/Gulf from Indian Ocean) to Awash (A!k'wa'sh) River to Rift Valley, recent volcanic uplift changed watersheds
http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=0201-126&volpage=photos&photo=104004
http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2009/09/mvp_5_ardoukoba_djibouti.php
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=12065

http://fotobank.ru/image/JW00-5676.html
Women with ornate shell hairstyles harvesting water lily bulbs at Awash River ("nymphs from Afar?") gather nymphaea (water lilies) in the presence of dragonfly nymphs (larvae) which feed on pond mosquito larvae, see story about remarkable journey taken by these Dragonflies from India over the Indian Ocean to Africa: http://the-arc-ddeden.blogspot.com/2009/07/migration-lemurs-dragons-wings.html

Backfloating on Awash River
http://herc.berkeley.edu:16080/jdesmond_clark_memorial/jdc03.jpg
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/10877665
Post-volcanic Awash R watershed
http://gridnairobi.unep.org/chm/waterbasins/Awash%20River%20Basin-11-03-08.jpg
Post-volcanic Abbe R / Tana L watershed in Ethiopia
http://gridnairobi.unep.org/chm/waterbasins/Abbay_River_Basin-11-03-08.jpg

Note: Lake Tana & Blue Nile (Abbay) River, Ethiopia is NOT Tana river delta, Kenya coast. They are different regions. Lake Abbe (Abhe Bad) also differs, being the final depository of the Awash River on the border between Ethiopia and Djibouti.

Lake Abbe, end of Awash River
Lake Abbe, Djibouti

Tana river-delta on the Kenya coast:
Tana delta, Kenya

Lake Tana: highland source of Ethiopia Blue Nile (Abbay) River:
Lake Tana, Ethiopia

Both are linked to early human evolution and civilization.

Homo sapiens developed cane canoes, rafts, boats
Lake Tana papyrus canoe
Lake Baringo ambatch canoe

But before these composite boats evolved, simple bundles of reeds were used as floats, and wood-hafted stone axes as weights, during cyclic submersion while foraging for plant rhyzomes, cichlids, catfish, crustaceans, shellfish etc.

Kelp Highway, Blue Highway
http://the-arc-ddeden.blogspot.com/2008/05/human-ancestors-at-waterside.html
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/48574/title/Droughts_gave_early_h

University of Texas at Austin anthropologist John Kappelman presented this counterintuitive idea October 19 in a talk titled “Blue Highways,” which followed his fossil digs along the Blue Nile tributaries in Ethiopia. Early humans are thought to have taken one of two routes out of Africa: along the Red Sea, or along the Nile Valley and out across Eurasia. But “there’s been very little testing on the ground, recovering fossils and sites that actually permit us to evaluate either one of those two hypothetical migration events,” Kappelman said. Most fossils found to date come from the rift valley on the eastern side of the continent, where dry, flat, exposed land makes for good fossil hunting. In the late 1990s, Kappelman started exploring the tributaries on the western side of the Nile, where no one had looked for fossils before. The last record of western exploration there was from British naturalist Sir Samuel Baker in the 1860s.

“This area that was a blank slate for Africa is finally starting to fill in,” Kappelman said.
Samuel Barker noticed something key: The rivers are dry for most of the year, but every summer the water rushes back “like freight cars,” Kappelman said. The torrent of water gouged out deep holes that retained water even during the dry season, leaving a necklace of isolated pools.

And the pools were full of fish. “The fish were literally in a bucket,” Kappelman says. If early humans stayed near these water holes, they could feast all through the dry season without working too hard. “We think of dry seasons as a time of adversity. We’re proposing that these were the easy times,” Kappelman says.

Kappelman and his team found double-edged blades that were probably used as arrow heads and evidence of hearth fires in several sites around the Nile. He thinks using these water holes could have taught early humans crucial skills, like fishing with nets or bow and arrow, that helped them survive seasonal and climate changes after migration to other parts of the world.
“It honed the behavioral foraging habits of early humans, and taught them to exploit a wide range of food,” Kappelman said.

(Ainu culturally derived) coastal Ama divers

The traditional Ama divers of Japan south coast spent part of the year tending freshwater rice paddies and part diving at the seashores with pry tools and basket floats.

The Moken (okeos) Andaman Sea people have wooden boat communities, children dive for shellfish. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moken

Notes on tropical/fragrant water lily: Seed, tuber, buds as food

http://www.innvista.com/health/foods/seeds/waternut.htm

In times of drought in the waterlilies natural habitat what happens is the pads will die off and the tuber will remain below the soil and becomes quite nut-like, protecting the tuber through the dry season. Once the rains return and the tuber becomes moist again it will send up new growth from the terminal crown and a new plant will be born. http://www.victoria-adventure.org/waterlilies_images/sean_tuber_tutorial/page1.html

Water lilies reproduce by seed and also by new plants sprouting from the large spreading roots (underground stems called rhizomes). A planted rhizome will cover about a 15-foot diameter in about five years.

Fragrant water lily has an interesting pollination strategy. Each white or pink flower has many petals surrounding both male and female reproductive parts, and is only open during the daytime for three days. On the first morning, the flowers produce a fluid in the cup-like center and are receptive to pollen from other flowers. However, they are not yet releasing pollen themselves. Pollen-covered insects are attracted by the sweet smell, but the flower is designed so that when they enter the flower, they fall into the fluid. This washes the pollen off their bodies and onto the female flower parts (stigmas) causing fertilization. Usually the insects manage to crawl out of the fluid and live to visit other flowers, but occasionally the unfortunate creature will remain trapped and die when the flower closes during the afternoon. On the second and the third days, the flowers are no longer receptive to pollen, and no fluid is produced. Instead, pollen is released from the stamens (the flexible yellow match-shaped structures in the flower center). Visiting insects pick up the pollen and transport it to flowers in the first day of the flowering cycle. After the three days the flowers are brought under water by coiling their stalks. The seeds mature under water and after several weeks are released into the water. Water currents or ducks, which eat the seeds, distribute them to other areas. This flowering regimen is followed nearly throughout the summer, producing many eye-pleasing blooms and a large supply of seeds.

In addition to reproducing by seeds, water lilies spread by rhizomes. Anyone who has tried to curtail this plant's growth in front of their dock knows how tenacious these root systems are. Also, if pieces of the rhizome are broken off during control efforts, they will drift to other locations and establish a new patch of lilies.

The fragrant water lily was utilized in many ways by Native Americans in the eastern United States. Roots of this and other water lilies were used medicinally as a poultice for sores and tumors, internally for many aliments including digestive problems, and rinse made for sores in the mouth. The leaves and flowers were also used as cooling compresses. In addition, the rhizomes were occasionally used as food and the young leaves and lower buds were eaten as a vegetable. Even the seeds were fried and eaten or ground into flour. Wildlife, including beaver, muskrat, ducks, porcupine, and deer also will eat the leaves, roots, or seeds. http://www.ecy.wa.gov/Programs/wq/plants/weeds/lily.html

Jordan Valley frog bit Hydrocharis morsus-ranae
http://www.wildflowers.co.il/english/plant.asp?ID=750

Jordan Valley white water lily
http://www.flowersinisrael.com/Nymphaeaalba_page.htm

Jordan Valley yellow pond lily
http://www.flowersinisrael.com/Nupharlutea_page.htm

India pink lotus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelumbo_nucifera

Egyptian blue water lily
http://www.egyptianmyths.net/lotus.htm
The Egyptian Blue Water-lily, N. caerulea, opens its flowers in the morning and then sinks beneath the water at dusk, while the Egyptian White Water-lily, N. lotus, flowers at night and closes in the morning.

Tana river delta nymphaea
http://www.feow.org/ecoregion_details.php?eco=567

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070604230442AA91zkq

Okavango Delta: termite, tree, hippo
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0412/feature3/fulltext.html

Congo Mbeli bai, Ndoki swamp lowland gorilla eat floating frogbit hydrocharis (92%) & some sedges (8%)
http://www.springerlink.com/content/d66v4990r452721p/fulltext.html

http://www.arkive.org/western-gorilla/gorilla-gorilla/video-go08.html

http://sci.tech-archive.net/Archive/sci.anthropology.paleo/2008-08/msg00063.html
http://books.google.com/books?id=ZcTP7Kb01NAC&pg=PA365&lpg=PA365&dq=Hydrocharis+chevalieri&source=bl&ots=b6deCmBDmQ&sig=vhg4uBxNyqaoMfZFmBNaw9t4SM0&hl=en&ei=dnnFSon1HJHcsgOA7OGhBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3#v=onepage&q=Hydrocharis%20chevalieri&f=false
Picture shows superficial resemblance of Hydrocharis and water lily, but hydrocharis roots float free with stolons at surface (easily dredged from above surface by gorilla standing or sit-floating upright with inflated laryngeal air sacs), while the water lily has anchored benthic roots and horizontal rhyzomes at a depth 6"-10" below soil substrate far below the water surface, often requiring facial submersion and combined with benthic shellfish foraging).

Nassarius marine mud snail shells used for ornamentation inland
http://www.pnas.org/content/106/38/16051.full

http://taos-telecommunity.org/epow/EPOW-Archive/archive_2009/EPOW-090119.htm

Hydrocharis storage turion buds into new plant
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HydrocharisBaby.jpg


Comparatives:

Butterfly (Nymphalids) 90ma & Angiosperm (flowering plants) 100ma evolution
http://www.abhishek-tiwari.com/2009/10/butterfly-phylogenetics.html

Frog 125ma & Archeafructus 125ma (water lily predecessor?) North East China
(see earlier posts)

Human ancestors: India 3ma (see Yohn & Todaro: African primate-only viruses between 3-5ma) (also see India origin of malaria 3ma), Djibouti (unique Tuberculosis 2ma), myosin mutation 2.4ma reduced jaw muscles & brain size constraint
2ma Asian pseudogene RRm2p4 nucleotide polymorphism on human X chromosome
http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/22/2/189

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-03/uopm-mmp032204.php
In an effort to find the remaining genes that govern myosin--the major contractile protein that makes up muscle tissue Penn researchers have found one small mutation that undermines an entire myosin gene. Their estimated dating for the appearance of this mutation places it at about 2.4 million years ago, just prior to a period of major evolutionary changes in the hominid fossil record. These include the beginning of larger brain size, so important in making us human. Anthropologists have long debated how humans evolved from ancestors with larger jaw muscles and smaller brains. This newly discovered mutation seems responsible for the development of smaller jaw muscles in humans as compared to non-human primates. Did this genetic mutation lift an evolutionary constraint on brain growth in early humans? MYH16 on chromosome 7 They found the gene-inactivating mutation in all modern humans sampled, with the same inherited muscle "disease." However, the mutation was not present in the DNA of seven species of non-human primates, including chimpanzees. macaque chewing and biting muscles are nearly ten times as large as in humans, which correlates with the fact that MYH16 protein is made in macaques and not in humans. researchers calculated that the inactivating mutation appeared in a hominid ancestor about 2.4 million years ago, after the lineages leading to humans and chimpanzees diverged. Shortly thereafter, roughly 2.0 million years ago, the less muscled, larger brained skulls of the earliest known members of the genus Homo start to appear in the fossil record.

From this the investigators postulated that the first early hominids born with two copies of the mutated MYH16 gene would show many effects from this single mutation--most notably a reduction in size and contractile force of the jaw-closing muscles, some of which exert tremendous stress across and/or cause deposition of additional bone atop growth zones of the braincase. "The coincidence in time of the gene-inactivating mutation and the advent of a larger braincase in some early Homo populations may mean that the decrease in jaw-muscle size and force eliminated stress on the skull, which 'released' an evolutionary constraint on brain growth,

Ice age glacial sea level 100m drops as Yemen gateway to south Asia and Sahara-Sinai desert gateway to Europe.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/54756

Based on this, we know that Ardi & Lucy were not likely to have been direct human ancestors, but possible chimp ancestors or extinct relatives which shared many phenotypical traits with early human ancestors.
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other items

Neandertals at Gibralter, Anglo Saxons of eastern England feasted on dolphin
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/sci.archaeology/browse_thread/thread/ea500d5e8628fcce#
http://anthropology.net/2009/09/16/neanderthal-hearths-at-el-salt-reveal-plant-and-fish-remains/#comment-15042


Stone/wood beaters used on tree bark cloth felt (cf Mongolian wool felt pulled/bounced behind horse, egyptian papyrus pith paper) in China, Vietnam, Tonga, Mexico.
Judith Cameron, Archaeology and Natural History, Australian National Univ.
http://dspace.anu.edu.au:8080/bitstream/1885/47191/1/ch13.pdf

Flora and fauna, fish hook and sewn plank canoe transmission between Asia and America pre-Colombian
ON LINGUISTICS AND CASCADING INVENTIONS: A COMMENT ON
ARNOLD’S DISMISSAL OF A POLYNESIAN CONTACT EVENT IN
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Terry L. Jones and Kathryn A. Klar

http://cla.calpoly.edu/~tljones/AQ74(1)%20Jones%20+%20Klar.pdf


http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=8-OilJCX1moC&oi=fnd&pg=PA238&dq=archaeology+%22pre-Columbian+contact%22&ots=PB_vZlY7vy&sig=NKJwE9osSyqBM8UMjEN__3G4zFk#v=onepage&q=archaeology%20%22pre-Columbian%20contact%22&f=false

Zizyphus fruit tree of Eurasia, short stemmed: http://www.citizendia.org/Jujube

Nutrition at waterside: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/54785

Cattle domestication at Mehrgarh, Indus above Indus delta.
http://www.citizendia.org/Mehrgarh
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Plausible? He only at rift & coast, not interior, Hs pre-domesticated along Levant-Indus coast, then returned to Africa as pastoralist/agriculturalist H&G only (pygmy/san/onge/kusunda?)...explains why megafauna remained in Africa long after mammoths and other megafauna all extinct throughout EurAsia.

Parallel: Further north, the Rift in the Jordan Valley, at paleo-lake Ubeidiya (3 km So of Sea of Gallilee), a large shallow freshwater lake at 100m below sea level, many acheulean hand axes found from 1.5ma. "Originally the site was on the edge of a small sweet-water lake; this accounts for the abundance of bones of mammals, reptiles, fish and birds. The hominids living at the site were hunters and scavengers. They made distinctive chopping tools of flint and spheroids of limestone, as well as hand-axes of flint and to lesser degree of basalt" (also almond and pond lily nuts). 20? km east of the Medit. along Jezreel valley, north of Dead Sea. During the Neogene, the Mediterranean penetrated into the Jordan Valley. The end of the Pliocene marks the creation of the Rift valley, cover basalt from 5ma to 3ma underlie the interesting layers. See page 11/31 at this pdf:
www.paleoanthro.org/dissertations/Miriam%20Belmaker.pdf
http://www.sitesandphotos.com/catalog/images/455911.jpg
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1966Natur.209.1268M
IN 1959 Dr, G. Haas, of the Department of Zoology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was sent some fossil animal bones which had been turned up by a bulldozer levelling a field near Tell Ubeidiya in the Jordan Valley near Lake Tiberias. In this material, Dr. Haas identified bones of extinct mammalia and ``a human incisor and two small fragments of a hominid calvarium of very great thickness''1.

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118911262/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

The large carnivores from ‘Ubeidiya (early Pleistocene, Israel)
Of specific importance is the presence of the African origin saber tooth Megantereon cf. M. whitei and the Eurasian origin canids Canis moschbachensis and Lycaon lycoanoides. Hippo tusk, mammoth molar at Ubeidiya:
http://digitool.haifa.ac.il/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=88799&local_base=GEN01
http://digitool.haifa.ac.il/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=88785&local_base=GEN01

http://www.gsi.gov.il/Eng/_Uploads/141Reactivation-of-the-Levant-passive.JPG
http://www.topo-europe.eu/3-the-natural-laboratory-concept/3-7-the-caucasus-and-levant/3-7-4-crustal-structure-and-physiography

Peritethyan and Pannonian Seas of Europe 10ma
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a8/MSC_basin_hypotheses.svg/350px-MSC_basin_hypotheses.svg.png&imgrefurl=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messinian_salinity_crisis&usg=__DZ63mmr9Wjv7sZ9LyhOuf7dsN5w=&h=364&w=350&sz=14&hl=en&start=34&sig2=Q1CH8sJ688ieeTITF3depQ&um=1&tbnid=81PvmHgYbY8IXM:&tbnh=121&tbnw=116&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlevant%2Bbasin%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN%26start%3D20%26um%3D1&ei=XwflSqKRDpDQswPlvqCwBA

The Pannonian Sea existed for about 9 million years. Its last remains disappered in the middle of Pleistocene Epoch, about 600,000 years ago. The water of the Pannonian Sea actually ruptured its way through the modern Đerdap Gorge on the Danube river and flowed through the gorge leaving behind a large plain known as the Pannonian Plain.
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Snail fossils suggest semiarid eastern Canary Islands were wetter 50,000 years ago

Isotopic measurements performed on fossil land snail shells resulted in oxygen isotope ratios that suggest the relative humidity on the islands was higher 50,000 years ago, then experienced a long-term decrease to the time of maximum global cooling and glaciation about 15,000 to 20,000 years ago, according to new research by Yurena Yanes, a post-doctoral researcher, and Crayton J. Yapp, a geochemistry professor, both in the Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. With subsequent post-glacial climatic fluctuations, relative humidity seems to have oscillated somewhat, but finally decreased even further to modern values.

Consequently the eastern Canary Islands experienced an overall increase in dryness during the last 50,000 years, eventually yielding the current semiarid conditions. Today the low-altitude eastern islands are characterized by low annual rainfall and a landscape of short grasses and shrubs, Yanes says. The research advances understanding of the global paleoclimate during an important time in human evolution, when the transition from gathering and hunting to agriculture first occurred in the fertile Middle East and subsequently spread to Asia, North Africa and Europe.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-10/smu-sfs102709.php#at

Via Elaine at AAT, from Dawkins site: [Recall that Queen Hatsheput, Pharaoh of Egypt that voyagedd the Red Sea to Punt met Queen Ati there who had steatopygya as did her daughter, showing a continuum from South African Namakwa KhoiSan to Andamaners, also seen in early Hs Euro mother Venus sculptures]

"One very interesting feature is Steatopygia -- extreme obesity in women during
pregnancy, often occur in Andamanese. It's considered as a disorder, but i
suspect it's an aquatic "adaptaion" -- for that pregnant women need more energy
storage and buoyancy (u may link it to water birth), or also, as the photo show,
a "platform" for the baby staying near water surface. (well this sounds
ridiculous, but it could contribute to higher survival rate if they were that
aquatic)" The photo shows and infant standing on the protuding buttocks of the mother
hanging on to her neck... and re. buoyancy: "Human buoyancy is very close to optimal for aquatic mammals. More importantly perhaps, our center of buoyancy is compatible with marine, not terrestrial mammals (Slijper 1976). This gives us the ability to maintain a horizontal attitude near the surface of the water with minimal energy expenditure."

Asian genes
Parallel: East Asian people have reduced body and facial hair with fu manchu beard, West Asian & African people have facial hair with full beard. East Asian tigers have only small fu manchu beard, West Asian & African lions have large mane and full beard.
India/Tibet has both types of people and lions-tigers. Why? Tigers more aquatic-arboreal or colder climate?

Marcel on marine kidneys, oreopith, AHV: http://www.bautforum.com/science-technology/94562-elaine-morgan-says-we-evolved-aquatic-apes-3.html

MSC: 6ma - 5.5ma Mediterranean dried out. Last common ancestor of chimpanzee and Homo is dated to around 5.5 Mya. Papio/gelada divergence at 4 (3.99) Mya.

Wood eating crabs at depth, as well as wood boring molluscs and isopods, there are crustaceans which eat plant matter which sinks to the ocean floor, including old wooden boats and tools (so its even harder to get evidence of ancient coastal tool use!).
http://www.oceanleadership.org/2009/the-deep-sea-crab-that-eats-trees/

Seeing fish at depth: http://www.fishbase.org/photos/depth.cfm?PicName=Lamer_j0.jpg

On Bagpipes and Blowguns: Respiration at waterside

On Bagpipes & Blowguns
[Updated as of Aug. 31, 09 with addition on mumps, omnivory & air sac transition to diving]

Respiration in surface float feeding vs deep benthic diving

Float/surface foragers have a bagpipe-like system of breathing & vocalizing
The lungs and/or the air sac are always aerated (buoyant), nostril-up or closed

Dive/benthic foragers have a blowgun-like system of breathing & vocalizing
The lungs and/or the blood/muscle are oxygenated, nostril-down or closed

This is parallel in: [surface vs benthic foraging]
lily pad sitting frogs vs deep sub aquatic frogs
surface foraging right whales vs benthic foraging sperm whales
nostril-up wading reindeer/caribou vs nostril-down moose/muntjac
nostril-up gorillas/chimps vs nostril-down humans

Nostril-up usually indicates laryngeal/throat air sac (frog/gorilla/chimp)
Nostril-down usually indicates lack of throat sac (human/sea otter/nasalis)
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Allopatric speciation in humans and chimpanzees:
http://www.mailund.dk/index.php/2009/08/26/patterns-of-autosomal-divergence-between-the-human-and-chimpanzee-genomes-support-an-allopatric-model-of-speciation/
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090828/full/news.2009.870.html?s=news_rss

Hominoid to human: From sit-float to backfloat to boat
http://the-arc-ddeden.blogspot.com/2009/04/re-from-sit-float-feeding-to-backfloat.html

The link from laryngeal air sac inflated sit-floating hominoids 20ma to forage diving - backfloating humans 1ma, connecting mumps, milk, weaning, hydrodynamics.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/53637

I think human laryngocoeles indicate at least a small throat air sac ancestrally (like dolphins). I doubt they had very large air sacs equal to large adult male gorilla. Human females in some areas low in Iodine can develop goiters, there may be a link, since the thyroid cartilage is adjacent. Goiters are usually mild, but can become very large. I've never heard of any non-human hominoid having a goiter. Both male and female apes have air sacs, only males may have huge ones.

We know that 3 year old Selam (dikik-1) of about 3ma had a hyoid bone (tongue base bone) indicating a laryngeal air sac, we don't know her exact species, though similar to Lucy the Apith afarensis. The hyoid is a small weak bone, usually it breaks down long before the skull does. The air sac itself doesn't last long at all. All Genus Homo hyoids found lack air sac indications, which fits with diving/submerged crouching but not much arboreal-terrestrial-swamp mix. Human ancestors after gorilla, chimps split didn't stay in wetlands, they were somewhere else, no more upright sit-floating. Most likely seashore beaches and no more thick forest canopy.

The correlation of fused tail bone and enlarged throat air sac is strong in non-quadruped tetrapods. Waterside foragers which don't dive tend to have shortened tails, whether they have air sacs or long prehensile nose-lip tools. I think our ancestors changed from sit-floating in lukewarm brackish water to backfloating in sunwarmed saltwater with face submerged, so air sacs became disadvantageous and the male beard became fuller, possibly females had slight goiters, possibly post-weaned kids had mild mumps swellings before puberty (post-milk, chewing-salivation immuno-reaction, triggered by contagious mumps
virus which might otherwise be present but non-infectious?).

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/53638

More on mumps, milk, air sacs, goiter, saliva, defensins:

Gorillasw are herbivores, they get their protein from floating herbs. A mother gorilla and mother rabbit both feed their infants fecal pellets, I think deer also do this, to provide symbiotic gut bacteria and pre-digested plant material and probably some maternal hormone and immuno-defensins. Carnivores and omnivores don't do this. Instead they chew, partly swallow, then regurgitate the food for the infant (birds and wolves). Human mothers just chew and spit out some foods, Marc has noted that kissing may have begun this way ancestrally,
notably some tribes don't kiss but do alternatively rub noses, foreheads or cheeks.

Pre-birth, fetus gets food and defensins via blood.
Post-partum, newborn gets food and defensins via milk.
Human babies at weaning get food chewed by the mother, mixing her saliva containing defensins (anti-biotics & pro-biotics).

So I think that mumps and probably goiters only originated after the move from fresh-brackish wetland herbivory float-sit-foraging to increased upright submersed crouch-plucking lily seeds and invertebrates and early shallow diving.

So in Genus Homo (and maybe only partially in Genus Pan, see bushbaby spearing by female fertile chimps) there is a combined correlation of increased omnivorous nutrition, salivary defensin transmittance at weaning, improved submerged hydrodynamic form of throat area but male-only beards, reduced plant protein consumption but still Vit C dependence on fruits-plants so PTC gene still selected for, contagious but mild form of mumps after weaning but before puberty, mild form of goiter hypothyroidy in fertile females but not
pre-pubertal females or males, effect of osteoporosis in elder females(?), weaned children chewing more, activating salivary glands, but also suction feeding at puberty (raw oyster as aphrodisiac).

So, I think the early speculation that mumps correlates to the diving transition is further confirmed. The loss of the laryngeal air sac and AHV herbivory resulted in increased general diet including seafood high in Iodine and Omega 3 fatty acids, supplementing shore foods, with effects on jaw, dentition, tongue, larynx, facial hair, "childhood diseases". (Chicken pox may correlate to hair loss or sun UV or eccrine sweating protection in some way.)

(Marc V. had the idea about the goiter-hydrodynamic-diet-temperature link.)

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Air sac & tidal lung breathing and buoyancy in dinosaurs, birds, crocs & snakes
http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2009/07/birds_cannot_be_dinosaurs.php#c2023608

"mauka to makai" Hawaiian for 'inland to oceanside' is a science/nature/marine blog
http://maukamakai.wordpress.com/

http://underwater-society.org/
http://www.usfreediving.org/freediving-gs-faq.htm
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Laryngospasm & Shallow Water Blackout: When divers attempt long dives, they may run out of oxygen, which causes SWBO and associated laryngospasm (safety closure of larynx at glottis valve). The diving buddy needs to recover the unconscious diver, get them to the surface, and if the diver does not awaken within a few seconds, do the BTT: Blow (remove mask) across the eyelids, Tap the cheek, Talk to wake up the diver. The eyelids link to the trigeminal nerve, the cheeks to the facial nerve, the ears to the auditory nerve. The BTT informs the diver that oxygen conservation is completed and to breathe. Presumably in ancient human divers, sunlight in the eyes did the same thing.

Dahab

freediving through the arc

Through the Arch (freediving in Dahab) from dahaba.net on Vimeo.

Water babies