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Human Ancestors Were Consuming Alcohol 10 Million Years Ago
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| December 1, 2014
| Carl Engelking
Posted on 12/25/2014 4:40:58 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Using the tools of paleogenetics, scientists have recently traced the evolutionary history of an enzyme that helps us metabolize ethanol, the principal type of alcohol found in adult beverages. Scientists believe early human ancestors evolved their ethanol-digesting ability about 10 million years ago to fortify their diet as they shifted from a tree-based lifestyle to a more ground-based lifestyle...
To help narrow that range, researchers studied the genetic evolution of alcohol-metabolizing enzyme ADH4, which has been present in primates, in one form or another, for at least 70 million years. Using genetic sequences from 28 different mammals, including 17 primates, the researchers were able to work backward and create a sort of family tree for ADH4.
To see how the past versions would have worked, researchers then synthesized nine different ADH4 proteins and tested their ethanol-busting properties.
Nearly all of the ADH4 enzymes from our primate ancestors were inactive -- meaning they didn't break down ethanol. However, about 10 million years ago, when orangutans and human ancestors diverged, things changed dramatically. A single amino acid alteration made ADH4 able to metabolize ethanol 40 times better than before.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.discovermagazine.com ...
TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: adh4; alcohol; alcoholenzyme; dietandcuisine; enzyme; ethanol; godsgravesglyphs; helixmakemineadouble; oenology; zymurgy
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1
posted on
12/25/2014 4:40:58 PM PST
by
SunkenCiv
To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; decimon; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; ...
They got drunk and fell out of the trees.
2
posted on
12/25/2014 4:41:30 PM PST
by
SunkenCiv
(https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/ _____________________ Celebrate the Polls, Ignore the Trolls)
To: SunkenCiv
The people coming up with all this craziness are always in someway paid by our tax dollars. That’s the really bad part about these dumb articles.
3
posted on
12/25/2014 4:44:01 PM PST
by
kjam22
(my music video "If My People" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74b20RjILy4)
To: kjam22
Not liking that scientific research, eh?
You do know we need to know these kinds of things for innumerable reasons.
4
posted on
12/25/2014 4:47:49 PM PST
by
freedumb2003
(AGW: Settled Science? If so, there would only be one model and it would agree with measurements)
To: SunkenCiv
Yea, but when did they figure out how to make bourbon?
5
posted on
12/25/2014 4:48:23 PM PST
by
Twotone
(Truth is hate to those who hate truth.)
To: SunkenCiv
6
posted on
12/25/2014 4:49:24 PM PST
by
RedStateRocker
(Nuke Mecca, deport all illegal aliens, abolish the IRS, DEA and ATF.)
To: freedumb2003
According to the article man developed through evolution the ability to digest alcohol somewhere between 9000 years ago and 10 million years ago. Depends on who you ask.... I’m not sure either camp has a real clue.
7
posted on
12/25/2014 4:50:17 PM PST
by
kjam22
(my music video "If My People" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74b20RjILy4)
To: SunkenCiv
“Don’t drink and drive. You might hit a bump and spill it”
-Dean Martin
8
posted on
12/25/2014 4:50:20 PM PST
by
RedStateRocker
(Nuke Mecca, deport all illegal aliens, abolish the IRS, DEA and ATF.)
To: SunkenCiv
9
posted on
12/25/2014 4:53:11 PM PST
by
RedMDer
(I don't listen to Liars but when I do I know it's Barack Obama.)
To: SunkenCiv
It’s certainly been a long morning after.
10
posted on
12/25/2014 4:53:17 PM PST
by
Veto!
(Opinions freely expressed as advice)
To: kjam22
“According to the article man developed through evolution the ability to digest alcohol somewhere between 9000 years ago and 10 million years ago. “
Alcohol, like cocaine, works because your body already makes it. In the case of alcohol, it performs two natural functions. It makes our alimentary canal MUCH more efficient, which means we can carry less gut, making us leaner, maneuverable and relatively fast. The other thing it does is work as a signal telling the body, if you have extra calories, store them in the front of the abdomen. (Really, it’s that specific.) We have learned to call this area the beer gut.
To: SunkenCiv
12
posted on
12/25/2014 4:58:38 PM PST
by
left that other site
(You shall know the Truth, and The Truth Shall Set You Free.)
To: SunkenCiv
All they had to do was eat overripe berries, like birds have done for millennia.
13
posted on
12/25/2014 5:00:18 PM PST
by
SgtHooper
(Anyone who remembers the 60's, wasn't there!)
To: RedMDer
Amazing photo.
Those little glasses of beer look SO SMALL — did that represent a standard drink served, back in the day?
14
posted on
12/25/2014 5:01:12 PM PST
by
workerbee
(The President of the United States is PUBLIC ENEMY #1)
To: SunkenCiv
This is the same timeframe that they started making up global warming stories and tried to get others to pay their way.
15
posted on
12/25/2014 5:05:33 PM PST
by
mountainlion
(Live well for those that did not make it back.)
To: kjam22
That is not what it says.
You have to read past the intro.
16
posted on
12/25/2014 5:09:39 PM PST
by
freedumb2003
(AGW: Settled Science? If so, there would only be one model and it would agree with measurements)
To: SunkenCiv
One more for the road?
17
posted on
12/25/2014 5:11:45 PM PST
by
Fred Nerks
(FAIR DINKUM)
To: RedMDer
Great pic. They’re having a good time!
To: freedumb2003
As a matter of fact it is what it says. According to the article.... there are two theories to when people developed the ability to digest alcohol. And they are millions of years apart.
19
posted on
12/25/2014 5:14:26 PM PST
by
kjam22
(my music video "If My People" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74b20RjILy4)
To: workerbee
From the picture link:
The skills involved in producing calotypes were not only of a technical nature. Hills sociability, humour and his capacity to gauge the sitters characters all played a crucial part in his photography. He is shown here on the right, apparently sharing a drink and a joke with James Ballantine and Dr George Bell. Bell, in the middle, was one of the commissioners of the Poor Law of 1845, which reformed poor relief in Scotland, and author of Day and night in the wynds of Edinburgh[2]. Ballantine was a writer and stained-glass artist, and the son of an Edinburgh brewer. On the table we see a beer bottle and three 19th-century drinking glasses called ale flutes. One contemporary account describes a popular Edinburgh ale (Younger's) as "a potent fluid, which almost glued the lips of the drinker together, and of which few, therefore, could dispatch more than a bottle."[3]
20
posted on
12/25/2014 5:22:32 PM PST
by
RedMDer
(I don't listen to Liars but when I do I know it's Barack Obama.)
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