The idea was generally ignored by the scientific community after the article was published. Some interest was received, notably from the geographer Carl Sauer whose views on the role of the seashore in human evolution "stimulated tremendous progress in the study of coastal and aquatic adaptations" inside marine archaeology. In 1967, the hypothesis was mentioned in "The Naked Ape", a popular book by the zoologist Desmond Morris, who reduced Hardy's phrase "more aquatic ape-like ancestors" to the bare "aquatic ape", commenting that "despite its most appealing indirect evidence, the aquatic theory lacks solid support".