<story><title>Humans are more dependent on water than many other mammals</title><url>https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/human-evolution-led-to-an-extreme-thirst-for-water/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>carapace</author><text>There are several oddities about humans that seem to indicate that we were semi-aquatic at one time: webbed fingers and toes, hairlessness (compared to other primates and hominids, we are the &amp;quot;naked ape&amp;quot;), our big beak noses that help keep water out of our nasal passages (some people can voluntarily seal their nostrils), our babies float and instinctively hold their breath, the fine hairs on our backs are slanted towards our spine (rather than away like all other primates) improving flow, our fingerprints that swell and wrinkle when wet making it easier to grip things, our eyes have a special &amp;quot;underwater mode&amp;quot;, etc.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>warent</author><text>Voluntarily sealing your nostrils is something I never knew about until I was complaining about some city odor to a girlfriend who said &amp;quot;Just plug your nose.&amp;quot; I said I didn&amp;#x27;t just want to walk around pinching my nose, and she gave me the most incredulous look. She was like &amp;quot;No, just do it without touching your face...&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;This definitely shocked me. May as well ask me to sprout wings and fly!</text></comment>
<story><title>Humans are more dependent on water than many other mammals</title><url>https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/human-evolution-led-to-an-extreme-thirst-for-water/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>carapace</author><text>There are several oddities about humans that seem to indicate that we were semi-aquatic at one time: webbed fingers and toes, hairlessness (compared to other primates and hominids, we are the &amp;quot;naked ape&amp;quot;), our big beak noses that help keep water out of our nasal passages (some people can voluntarily seal their nostrils), our babies float and instinctively hold their breath, the fine hairs on our backs are slanted towards our spine (rather than away like all other primates) improving flow, our fingerprints that swell and wrinkle when wet making it easier to grip things, our eyes have a special &amp;quot;underwater mode&amp;quot;, etc.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>drewmol</author><text>Interesting.  I happened to be one of those natural born swimmers (not as newborn) as an infant as I could float, move around by wiggling like a fish and close nasal passages instinctively (w&amp;#x2F;o exhaling) at 8 months.  Always perplexed me that some people will hold their nose closed or have to exhale through it while under water.</text></comment>