180k-Year-Old Mutation Allowed Humans To Become Vegetarians, Move Out of Africa

An anonymous reader writes "Early humans were able to move from Africa after a single genetic mutation allowed them to become vegetarians, scientists claim. The switch, which allowed humans to process vegetables, meant that humans were able to move away from water sources and spread across the continent. A team of geneticists compared DNA sequences from a variety of people around the world to see how different populations relate to one another and when they have gone their separate ways. The scientists found that a key genetic variant gave humans the ability to convert fats from plants into essential nutrients for the brain."

Comments

I don't understand...

[mcgrew]

The switch, which allowed humans to process vegetables, meant that humans were able to move away from water sources and spread across the continent.

Without water there's no plants, without water and plants there are no animals. But it seems to me that the mutation didn't make us herbivores, it made us able to greatly expand our sources of nutrition. We not only could eat meat, but veggies as well.

We're not herbivores, we're omnivores.