It is related to that. For primates not having that ability, the new protein is better.
And therefore I assumed that Neanderthal had it and the rest of us didn't.
Neanderthal was probably in the same boat, no ability to synthesize vitamin C. You certainly had your blinders in place when reading that article.
So if it's something Human's had all along, and we don't have any proof that human's ever lacked it. They why are we assuming that Human's EVOLVED it?
Hmmm? Humans still have the pseudogene remnant of their former ability to synthesize vitamin C. Hello?
The scenario runs something like this. Non-primate mammals (with some exception, like said guinea pig) had the ability to synthesize ascorbic acid, an important intermediate compound for connective tissue growth and repair. The mammalian radiation created a group of tree-dwelling, fruit-eating mammals called primates. Fruit has lots of vitamin C in it. If your population lives by eating fruit all day, you could lose the ability of synthesize vitamin C and never notice for generations and generations. That happened.
Some primate groups eventually stopped eating so much fruit. They noticed a susceptibility to a new form of malnutrition. We call it "scurvy."
Cutting vitamin C out of the loop to form osteocalcin was an advantage for the new omnivorous primates. They seemed to have hit this mutation early. At any rate, humans, orangs, neanderthals, and chimps all have the new osteocalcin.
I don't see how you can say there's no evidence. We have lots of molecular studies now. This is just another one on a large and growing pile.
You're trying to make a science out of being dumb as a post, Danny. That doesn't go anywhere good.
But you still don't have evidence of humans without the ability to synthesize the protein, so you don't have any evidence of evolution.
A more likely scenario is that human's originally was originally designed with both the ability to synthesize vitamin C as well as the ability to generate this protein whether or not they had vitamin C.
Humans, primates and guinea pigs all lost the ability of synthesize vitamin C but still have the pseudogene.
We know that the body often can compensate for the loss of some functionality. For examine, a loss of a kidney or eye, or a gall bladder, or an appendix and still function although at a suboptimal level. Thus an original design that included vitamin C sysnthesis as well as the ability to generate protein in the absence of vitamin C would be consistent with the redundancy that we often find designed in the human body.