I know this book. I loved! In fact I would like to read it again. I
remember that it was very plausible sounding, and quite a few "puzzle
pieces" dropped into place for me when I read it.
I would need the book to comment specifically, but a few things that I
recall; the pattern of body hair would be indicative of extended water
immersion,  the relative hairlessness of women- except for the head
(babies
swimming about had a rope to cling to), etc. Our feminine plumpness
and
-especially breasts being overlarge (compared to other mammals) to
insulate
us from long periods in the water; how we were able to escape
predators by
being out where few would follow...yes, yes, I am remebering now...

Thanks for reminding me!

Louise

At 09:43 AM 09/15/2000 EDT, you wrote:
>I read a book some 20 years ago or so called The Descent of Woman.
>
>The author theorized that we spent a large amount of time in the water (not
>living in it, but near it and spending a lot of time in it), as evidenced by
>our noses, hairless bodies, fat distribution and other evolutionary
>differences from land-bound primates.
>
>She had a lot of interesting theories about all of this that could have been
>just plain silly, but at the time, they made a lot of sense.  Has anyone else
>read this or heard of these theories?
>
>Denise
>