Sir 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 between 1925 and 1927, and in his studies of zooplankton and its relationship with predators became expert in marine mammals such as whales. 1896 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1985 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The University of Oxford, located in the city of Oxford, England, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. ... Marine biology is the study of animal and plant life within saltwater ecosystems. ... Photomontage of plankton organisms Plankton is the aggregate community of weakly swimming but mostly drifting small organisms that inhabit the water column of the ocean, seas, and bodies of freshwater. ... Zoology (Greek zoon = animal and logos = word) is the biological discipline which involves the study of animals. ... A number of ships have borne the name RRS Discovery. ... Greek ἀνταρκτικός, opposite the arctic) is a continent surrounding the Earths South Pole. ... 1925 was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1927 was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ...

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. The University of Hull, also known as Hull University, is an English university in the East Riding of Yorkshire which was founded in 1927. ... 1928 was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... This article is about the year. ... A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. ... The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is claimed to be the oldest learned society still in existence. ... 1940 was a leap year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1957 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1945 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1961 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

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. 1930 is a common year starting on Wednesday. ...

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. 1960 was a leap year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... The aquatic ape hypothesis (or aquatic ape theory as it is frequently called) is most commonly interpreted to hold that ancestors of humans and other hominids went through one or more periods of time living in a semi-aquatic setting on an African seacoast, that they gathered most of their...

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 at the University of Wales, Lampeter. The Religious Experience Research Centre was founded by the distinguished marine biologist Professor Alister Hardy FRS in 1969 as The Religious Experience Research Unit. ... University of Wales, Lampeter Prifysgol Cymru, Llanbedr Pont Steffan   University of Wales, Lampeter (Welsh: Prifysgol Cymru, Llanbedr Pont Steffan) is a university in Lampeter, Wales, the oldest degree awarding institution in Wales, and the third oldest in England and Wales after Oxford and Cambridge. ...

External link

• Alister Hardy Society Homepage