- 03-22-2004, 07:40 PM By Gilien Silsby and Gia Scafidi When our human ancestors started eating meat, evolution served up a healthy bonus - the development of genes that offset high cholesterol and chronic diseases associated with a meat-rich diet, according to a new USC study. Those ancestors also started living longer than ever before - an unexpected evolutionary twist. The research by USC professors Caleb Finch and Craig Stanford appeared in the Quarterly Review of Biology. "At some point - probably about 2 1/2 million years ago - meat eating became important to humans," said Stanford, chair of the...