Neanderthals wouldn't have eaten their sprouts either

PhysOrg ^ | August 12th, 2009 | Denholm Barnetson

[SunkenCiv]

Spanish researchers say they have found that a gene in modern humans that makes some people dislike a bitter chemical called phenylthiocarbamide, or PTC, was also present in Neanderthals hundreds of thousands of years ago... The scientists made the discovery after recovering and sequencing a fragment of the TAS2R38 gene taken from 48,000-year-old Neanderthal bones found at a site in El Sidron, in northern Spain, they said in a report released Wednesday by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)... Substances similar to PTC give a bitter taste to green vegetables such as Brussels sprouts, broccoli and cabbage as well as some fruits. But they are also present in some poisonous plants, so having a distaste for it makes evolutionary sense... What intrigued the researchers most is that Neanderthals also possessed a recessive variant of the TAS2R38 gene which made some of them unable to taste PTC -- an inability they share with around one third of modern humans... Excavations since 2000 at the site at El Sidron, in the Asturias region, have so far recovered the skeletal remains of at least 10 Neanderthal individuals.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Yes and also collard greens.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

~grin.

I am sure there are many people who would agree with you.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

You don’t like mustard on a hot dog (or hamburger, if you are a southerner)?

[wildbill]

There are humans who eat hamburgers without mustard? Come on, you’re shining me on.