The international team of scientists has found that The attraction of people to alcohol can have its roots in the evolutionary history we share with our monkeys. The team measured the amount of ethanol in fruits such as figs that consume wild chimpanzees in ivory and Uganda coast. According to their findings They consume about 14 grams of ethanol a day, which corresponds to approximately a third of a liter bottle of beer. The most commonly consumed fruit had the highest alcohol content.
“Human attraction to alcohol probably originated from this dietary heritage of our common ancestors with chimpanzees,” he is saying Author of the Aleksey Maro study from the University of California, Berkeley. The study supports the so -called hypothesis of a drunken monkey, according to which people inherited their appetite for alcohol from their ancestors. This idea was the first to be proposed by Professor Robert Dudley of the University of California, Berkeley, who is also a co -author of the study.
According to Professor Catherine Hobaiter from University of St. Andrews, which did not participate in the research, the results show that people’s relationship to alcohol goes deep into our evolutionary past. “Our connection with alcohol probably started about 30 million years ago. Perhaps it is a joint eating of the overripe the way of strengthening social ties for chimpanzees,” He stated Hobaiter in a statement for the BBC.
Primatology Kimberley Hockings of Exeter University added that The chimpanzees that were subject to this study did not consume sufficient alcohol to get drunk. “If it happened, it would certainly not improve their chances of survival,” She stressed in an interview with the BBC. Research results were published in Science Advance.
