According to a report in The New York Times, two separate studies conducted by Omer Gokcumen of the University at Buffalo and Peter Sudmant of the University of California, Berkeley, suggest that hominins began producing more genes to produce amylase, an enzyme that begins digesting starches in the mouth, several hundred thousand years ago, and again some 12,000 years ago. Gokcumen thinks that the first change may be linked to the use of fire and cooking, which would have made starchy tubers more digestible. It has been thought that individuals who had more amylase in their saliva may have been...