Could Aquatic Hominids Have Evolved In Our Oceans?

One of the most interesting accounts of evolutionary history on Earth is found in the modern Cetaceans; whales, dolphins and porpoises. This group of mammals evolved from fully terrestrial ancestors “back” to fully aquatic mammals during the Eocene epoch; roughly 50 million years ago.

One of the most fascinating aspects of modern cetaceans is their intelligence. Experts have spent decades studying the amazing evolution of the Cetacean brain which is superiorly different than other mammals and especially humans. They show great abilities in communication, learning , empathy and emotion.

The human brain shares three segments with all other mammals, the cetacean brain is uniquely different in its physiology. Humans have the rhinic, limbic, and supralimbic, with the neocortex covering the surface of the supralimbic. However, with cetaceans we see a radical evolutionary jump with the inclusion of a fourth segment.

This is a fourth cortical lobe, giving a four-fold lamination that is morphologically the most significant differentiation between cetaceans and all other cranially evolved mammals, including humans. No other species has ever had four separate cortical lobes. This additional lobe is called the paralimbic lobe and it is a continuation of the sensory and motor areas found in the supralimbic lobe in humans.

What does this mean exactly?

For us to make an integrated perception from sight, sound, and touch, impulses must travel by long fiber tracts with a great loss of time and information.

The cetacean’s paralimbic system makes possible the very rapid formation of integrated perceptions with a richness of information unimaginable to us. We view hand-to-eye coordination as a highly intelligent ability. We build things; we make tools and weapons, manufacture vehicles, and construct buildings. We use our brains to focus our eyes to guide our hands to force our environment to conform to our desires or our will. Cetaceans do not however it is important to note that the largest brain that ever developed on Earth is that of a whale.

Cetaceans do have built-in abilities like sonar that put our electronic sonar devices to shame. Sperm whales have even developed a “sonic ray-gun”, so to speak, allowing them to stun prey from a head filled with spermaceti oil to amplify and project a sonic blast.

According to a comparison of cetacean to primate brains from Michigan State University, “They have the distinct advantage over us in that their primary sense is the same as their primary means of communication, both are auditory. With primates, the primary sense is visual and the primary means of communication is auditory.”

Communication is so great in cetaceans that there is a strong possibility they are able to project (yes … literally project) an “auditory image” that replicates a sonar message they may receive. The process is a bit confusing, but MSU describes it in this circumstance: “So a dolphin wishing to convey the image of a fish to another dolphin can literally send the image of a fish to the other animal. The equivalent of this in humans would be the ability to create instantaneous holographic pictures to convey images to other people.”

So what we know from the evolution of Cetaceans is that their intelligence is far more advanced than other mammals on the planet. This leads me to a hypothesis:

Is it possible that an ancient ancestor to modern primates evolved back to the sea in similar fashion, exhibiting similar advancements and differences in intellectual capabilities?

From the same time period that the Cetaceans ancestors began their evolutionary journey, we also see the first evidence of the existence of primates.

What if there were early primates that lived near coastal regions and also, over time evolved to become aquatic in nature similar to that of the Cetaceans? While this may be more of a “pseudoscience”, let us look at a modern day indigenous people who do live in and on the water: The ” Sea Nomads” known as the Sama-Bajau. This society of people live on stilt houses and boats primarily off of the Tawi Tawi islands in the Philippines and live on and in the water their whole lives.

The Sama Bajau people have lived in and on the sea for over 1,000 years and have the ability to hold their breath longer than three minutes and have been known to free dive to depths of over 230 feet. The most extraordinary aspect of these people is that in such a short period of time, their physiology has changed to adapt to life in the water.

They have larger than average spleens which aids in diving for longer periods of time. It has also been discovered that this attribute is a genetic adaptation amongst them regardless if the individual dives a lot or not. Other genetic adaptations have been discovered that affect blood vessel constriction, oxygen flow to major organs and CO2 levels in the blood.

If these genetic adaptations can happen in just 1,000 years, which is relatively short in the grand evolutionary timeline, imagine the changes that may occur in 10,000 or 100,000 years. Now what if, millions of years ago an early primate evolved similarly to the ancestors of modern Cetaceans? Would their intellectual capabilities also become more advanced than us, their terrestrial relatives?

Could the existence of UFO technologies being encountered in our worlds oceans be just that? An indigenous, advanced aquatic hominid that has evolved to utilize the elements found in the depths of our oceans and have made their own technological and societal advancements?

Could the “grey” aliens, for example be light skinned because of lack of direct sunlight exposure? Could their large black eyes aid them in seeing in the dark depths of the ocean? Just as Cetaceans developed extrasensory auditory and sonographic abilities, perhaps an aquatic hominid has developed similar advancements utilizing broader ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum and even have developed telepathic abilities for communication.