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Ability To Consume Alcohol May Have Shaped Human Evolution

Posted by samzenpus on from the have-a-drink-on-me dept.

sciencehabit writes Craving a stiff drink after the holiday weekend? Your desire to consume alcohol, as well as your body's ability to break down the ethanol that makes you tipsy, dates back about 10 million years, researchers have discovered. The new finding not only helps shed light on the behavior of our primate ancestors, but also might explain why alcoholism—or even the craving for a single drink—exists in the first place.

2 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. Of course it did by GrumpySteen · · Score: 5, Funny

    Anyone who has woken up next to someone they hooked up with while drunk can tell you that alcohol completely undermines selective breeding.

  2. Re:Birds Get Drunk Too, and maybe the squirrels by kwiecmmm · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Many animals have been known to get drunk. I once saw a nature special where a lot of African animals ate the fruit off a grove of trees and all got drunk. After this happened most of them passed out next to each other. So there was an awesome site of monkeys, zebras and lions all sleeping a few feet away from each other.

    I think what the article is pointing out is that our ability to process more alcohol allowed us to eat more fruit without getting drunk, which allowed us to be more mobile and defend territory better while not getting drunk. It also probably helped us defend ourselves better against predators, than those that were drunk.