The Aquatic Ape Theory.

Further evidence for the aquatic ape theory:

Early modern humans in East Africa initially survived on an inland diet based on big game but by 70,000 years ago, archaeological finds suggest their diet had changed to a coastal one consisting largely of shellfish.

However, climate change seems likely to have reduced the Red Sea's shellfish stocks, driving them to seek better fishing grounds.

Now I’m not a biologist by any means, but I’ve always been intruiged by the various bits and bobs of evidence that show how, at some point along the line, humans and seashores interacted. The pattern of hair on our bodies, the way new born babies can swim, these sorts of things. I certainly don’t claim that this news proves any of it,  just find it interesting, that’s all.

The international project shows - contrary to previous thinking - that early modern humans spread across the Red Sea from the Horn of Africa, along the tropical coast of the Indian Ocean towards the Pacific in just a few thousand years.

This also ties in with something Jared Diamond said in Guns Germs and Steel, that the Clovis people could have reached Chile/Patagonia only 1,000 years after crossing the Bering Strait (at that time a land bridge). It’s only a few miles a year of movement, nothing exceptional for hunter gatherers. It might also have implications for Kenneth Windschuttle’s (spelling?) work on Negritos as well. Be fun to see how the research all pans out.

Anyone who has further links to this sort of stuff, please do leave them in the comments.