Naked Science Forum

General Science => General Science => Topic started by: Stevie Bain on 09/08/2017 16:58:21

Title: Would freshwater oceans have an impact on human evolution?
Post by: Stevie Bain on 09/08/2017 16:58:21

Khal would like to know:

Would mankind have developed differently if the oceans were fresh water?

Can you help?

 

Title: Re: Would freshwater oceans have an impact on human evolution?
Post by: Kryptid on 10/08/2017 00:40:09

Due to the butterfly effect, almost everything would have evolved differently.

Title: Re: Would freshwater oceans have an impact on human evolution?
Post by: alancalverd on 10/08/2017 01:17:59

If, by "fresh water", you mean H2O and nothing else, nothing could have evolved in the absence of solutes. All processes we associate with life appear to involve ionic solutes other than atmospheric gases, so it is almost certain that any other combination than what we find in "natural" water would have led to a very different fauna.

That said, the early development of humans since departing from our common ancestry with other genuses, had very little to do with the salinity of the oceans: whilst some groups developed sea shore habitats, the majority seem to have inhabited river banks and lake shores and all require "fresh" water for drinking.