The gene that produces the ADH4 enzyme, which allows humans to
digest alcohol, could be ten million years old, according to a new study
conducted by biologist Matthew Carrigan of Santa Fe College. “Our ape
ancestors gained a digestive enzyme capable of metabolizing ethanol near
the time they began using the forest floor about ten million years ago.
Because fruit collected from the forest floor is expected to contain
higher concentrations of fermenting yeast and ethanol than similar
fruits hanging on trees this transition may also be the first time our
ancestors were exposed to—and adapted to—substantial amounts of dietary
ethanol,” Carrigan told
The Telegraph.
It had been thought that the enzyme first appeared when Neolithic
farmers in northern China began fermenting foods some 9,000 years ago.
To read more on alcohol in the archaeological record, see "
Europe's Earliest Wine."
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Human ancestors may have begun evolving the knack for consuming alcohol about 10 million years ago
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