[jazzyjackson]

Just because it is unpopular doesn't mean its bunk.

From my reading of the situation (having been converted), it seems that being a 'just so' explanation (not so evidence based, just conjecture), and one put forward by a woman in the 1970s, it was met with really over the top hostility for what I think is an interesting hypothesis.

You get into how our fingers prune up for better grip in the water, our diving reflex, and how at-home some spearfishers and free divers are in the ocean, not to mention the multitude of fishing villages that predate written history by who knows how long... it's a very convenient explanation -- which academics are right to be skeptical of -- but I don't think it deserves being cast as bunk.

Somewhat tangential, but here's my favorite video of humans being at home in the ocean, "Living off the Land in Hawaii", with badass laying on the ocean floor waiting for a meal @3:45 https://youtu.be/jJXEepvG6Hc?t=225

[GalacticDomin8r]

> You get into how our fingers prune up for better grip in the water

Awfully skeptical of that claim. While there is more friction area potentially, skin is very easy to damage when "pruned". You can't use any significant force in this condition making normal skin with higher force capability much more useful in water.

[jazzyjackson]

I didn't make it up myself, from 2013:

"In the latest study, participants picked up wet or dry objects including marbles of different sizes with normal hands or with fingers wrinkled after soaking in warm water for 30 minutes. The subjects were faster at picking up wet marbles with wrinkled fingers than with dry ones, but wrinkles made no difference for moving dry objects. The results are published today in Biology Letters"

https://www.nature.com/news/science-gets-a-grip-on-wrinkly-f...