Alister Hardy
Alister Hardy (1896 - 1985) was an Oxford-educated marine biologist, expert on zooplankton and marine ecosystems. He was the zoologist on the RRS Discovery voyage to explore the Antarctic in 1901, and in his studies of zooplankton and its relationship with predators became expert in marine mammals such as whales. Hardy was Professor of Zoology at the University of Hull from 1928 - 1942, became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1940, was knighted in 1957, Linacre Professor of Zoology in Oxford from 1945 to 1961. In 1930, while reading Wood Jones' Man's Place among the Mammals, which included the question of why humans, unlike all other land mammals, had fat attached to their skin, Hardy realized that this trait sounded like the blubber of marine mammals, and apparently began to suspect that humans had ancestors more aquatic than previously imagined. Fearing the backlash of such a radically different idea, he kept this hypothesis secret until 1960, when he spoke, and later wrote, on the subject, which became known as the Aquatic Ape Theory, in academic circles. As time went on, he became interested in spiritual phenomena, working to compile a database of religious experiences and eventually founding the Alister Hardy Trust Fund, which still investigates and tracks religious experiences. External link Alister Hardy Society Homepage
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