
Early mammals are thought to have lived mainly nocturnal lives - sohkamyung
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01109-6
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burtonator2011
This make a ton of sense on the surface.

It explains why we're warm blooded (keep warm).

It explains why we have fur (keep warm).

Plus there were a lot of reptiles about during the day and the night would
have given us an advantage.

"us" lol.. team mammal FTW!

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rangibaby
The semi-aquatic ape theory makes a lot of sense at first but is (apparently)
bunk

~~~
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](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...](https://www.nature.com/news/science-gets-a-grip-on-wrinkly-
fingers-1.12175)

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danieltillett
Bird vision is so much better than mammalian vision. Primate vision is a
poorly hacked together attempt to get back to something similar to what birds
have, but compared to the cephalopod eye they are both hacks [0].

[0]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalopod_eye](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalopod_eye)

~~~
Mirioron
Do telescopes count as mammalian vision?

~~~
zzo38computer
I think that it does not; it counts as artificial, instead. However, it can be
used together with mammalian vision.

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aklemm
As a nocturnal mammal, I enjoy this connection to my genetic ancestors.

