Human ancestors started drinking booze 10 million years ago, scientists say

Civilization has been enjoying a good tipple for much longer than we previously thought, according to a new study. In fact, it seems that our primate ancestors began getting tipsy 10 million years ago, by eating and metabolizing fermented fruit.

Until now, it was widely believed that man came into contact with alcohol around 9,000 years ago, when Chinese villagers combined fruit and honey to make an intoxicating brew.

But a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences claims that humankind has been boozing for much longer than believed.

Research led by Professor Matthew Carrigan from Santa Fe College in Florida, examined the alcohol gene ADH4, “the first enzyme exposed to ethanol in the digestive tract that is capable of metabolizing ethanol,” in samples of almost 70 million years of primate evolution. Scientists were able to identify a single gene variant that enabled our kind to first break down ethanol in the digestive system – and it took place about 10 million years ago.

Ancient alcohol: Primates first consumed booze 10mn years ago – study

Ill drink to that

Must be the aliens, when they started to make the hybrids from primates that ended with the slave race known as humans, they introduced the genes to metabolize alcohol, in order to control the new slaves giving them alcohol. It works until our days

Hmm. 10 million years ago does sound quite early for humans to be drinking booze...

...But I suppose it's always 5:00 somewhere



Seriously though --

It doesn't surprise me. If they had juices from fruits laying around, then the sugars in those juices could naturally ferment, producing alcohol. So if they drank the juice from fruits, then they almost certainly had alcoholic drinks -- even if by accident.

a reply to: Indigent

i guess that group of scientist are kinda slow on the draw. it is a well known fact that primates and many other animals eat and get hammered off of eating fermented fruit. it's only logical that that behavior has been passed down for eons.

My friends and i used to eat pears from a local orchard that were,, lets just say past their sell by date because they gave you a buzz.

pretty cool mental image of cave men chilling out making toilet wine

thanks

So I take it that means that thanks to a mutation that happened 10 million years ago, I can get drunk.

Inquiring minds want to know, If I throw my bottle of whiskey into the air, will it turn into a spaceship?

a reply to: Junkheap

Only if you touch the obelisk first with this sound track

This isn't surprising considering how monkeys can turn into thieving drunks. That should have been an obvious clue to our own propensity for drinking alcohol.

all-that-is-interesting.com...

On the Caribbean island of St. Kitt’s, alcoholic monkeys roam the beaches waiting for vacationers to leave their drinks. Yes, you read that right, there is an entire island of drunk monkeys:

a reply to: Indigent

I heard that in the exact location they discovered this they also found a reclining chair made of stone...

a reply to: Indigent

Fermentation has been a natural process ever since fruit started evolving, and ape populations most certainly consumed fruit while it was rotten as well. So I can see this happening. Although, is this really a 'new' discovery? lol...

Oh dear

Beaten to it

Kindest respects

Rodinus

originally posted by: hounddoghowlie
a reply to: Indigent

i guess that group of scientist are kinda slow on the draw. it is a well known fact that primates and many other animals eat and get hammered off of eating fermented fruit. it's only logical that that behavior has been passed down for eons.

This actual evidence, not mere extrapolation.

originally posted by: GetHyped

originally posted by: hounddoghowlie
a reply to: Indigent

i guess that group of scientist are kinda slow on the draw. it is a well known fact that primates and many other animals eat and get hammered off of eating fermented fruit. it's only logical that that behavior has been passed down for eons.

This actual evidence, not mere extrapolation.

please, you mean to tell me that all the filmed behavior of primates, and other animals eating fermented fruit, plus the fact that they teach their young where to hunt, how to hunt, what to hunt, sleep, and any other behavior you can think of once one it is learned. that has been documented is not good enough evidence, and that they didn't pass it down to their young.

plus you notice that in the source article, it says food scarcity, and not came down from the trees to party. in other words it is a learned behavior in order to survive.

The mutation coincided with the transition to a “terrestrial lifestyle,” when our ancestors were forced to come down from a tree and eat fermented fruits during times of food scarcity.

a reply to: hounddoghowlie

Yes, that is exactly what I am saying. Extrapolation =/= evidence. This how science works. It is driven by evidence, not assumptions. "It seems likey that..." is a far cry from "we have direct empirical evidence that..."

a reply to: Indigent

The ones that didn't drink didn't evolve. Liquor is the grease in our evolutional ball bearings.