Eating meat lead to the evolution of mankind?

[C.O.]

I got into a random debate with a lady yesterday, she claimed that eating meat contributed to the growth in the human brain that lead to mankind evolving from neanderthals. Has anyone heard of this before. I did a quick google search but what I found so far quickly that supported her theory didn't sound very legit.

-Dylan

[mrbear666]

i always get this one from people in work! so my reply is usually something like, well it hasnt done us much good has it? more people are sick than ever before, more wars, more starvation, more animal suffering.......yeh we've evolved real well!

[vegantri]

I got into a random debate with a lady yesterday, she claimed that eating meat contributed to the growth in the human brain that lead to mankind evolving from neanderthals. Has anyone heard of this before. I did a quick google search but what I found so far quickly that supported her theory didn't sound very legit.

-Dylan

It is a hypothesis that is out there but there isn't any sort of scientific consensus on the subject.

It has been covered at PaleoVeganlolgy a great blog that doesn't have to do with the Paleo diet but rather is run by a paleontologist. http://paleovegan.blogspot.com

In the end it really doesn't matter if it did or didn't. The moment in evolution is over and meat is required for brain function now.

[Mark007]

Ha ha nice one MrBear…DeEvolution?
Evolution is such a complex and diverse phenomenon that modern scientist can’t fully explain it. But if all were doing here is making speculation than you can easily make a case in the other direction. Mankind is approximately 2.5 million years old and yet the first civilizations didn’t appear until about 8,000 BC. One of the main reason that civilizations started was because of farming. Once people learned how to grow crops they had an abundance of food and could barter. So you could say vegetables not meat helped us evolve.

[stcalico]

Cruelty is cruelty regardless of our 'ancestors' involvement with it. We are at a stage where we can stop and think about our own involvement. ie. Human survival does not depend on meat consumption. With the rate of deforestation, climate change, fresh water shortages etc, I personally don't expect humans need to worry much about future 'evolution'. Even if there was time for further human evolution, the genetically modified strain of humans will just take over. (I jest.. sort of)

Why aren't chimpanzees endowed with human brains? They eat meat.
And why aren't lions and tigers smarter than us? They eat a lot more meat! I think the meat eating 'theory' is thus debunked. Or perhaps the cats are just biding their time and will soon wage war, then round up the humans and put them all on factory farms. hmm... wouldn't that be true karma.

[mrbear666]

Ha ha nice one MrBear…DeEvolution?
Evolution is such a complex and diverse phenomenon that modern scientist can’t fully explain it. But if all were doing here is making speculation than you can easily make a case in the other direction. Mankind is approximately 2.5 million years old and yet the first civilizations didn’t appear until about 8,000 BC. One of the main reason that civilizations started was because of farming. Once people learned how to grow crops they had an abundance of food and could barter. So you could say vegetables not meat helped us evolve.

yeah thats ^ a ^ good ^ one too, not thought of it that way!

[Mika]

Look at what spiritual masters said about eat animals... they don't eat them., They said that eat animals is the cause of a lot of our problems... for our body and also for our spirit. And i think like that too.

[MartinVegartin]

There's evidence our ancestors could have cooked their food 1.9 million years ago. If so, they could have obtained lots of extra energy from starchy tubers and other foods to grow bigger brains.

There may also have been a boost to evolution caused by a mutation in how a particular gene is regulated. An article based on the following study:
PLoS Biol. 2005 Dec;3(12):e387.
Ancient and recent positive selection transformed opioid cis-regulation in humans.
PMID: 16274263

Says:

'Researchers have discovered the first brain regulatory gene that shows clear evidence of evolution from lower primates to humans. They said the evolution of humans might well have depended in part on hyperactivation of the gene, called prodynorphin (PDYN), that plays critical roles in regulating perception, behavior and memory.

They reported that, compared to lower primates, humans possess a distinctive variant in a regulatory segment of the prodynorphin gene, which is a precursor molecule for a range of regulatory proteins called "neuropeptides." This variant increases the amount of prodynorphin produced in the brain.

While the researchers do not understand the physiological implications of the activated PDYN gene in humans, they said their finding offers an important and intriguing piece of a puzzle of the mechanism by which humans evolved from lower primates.'

Full article at:
medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=34876

The full study is available on PubMed.

[C.O.]

This is great, I'm loving reading all the feedback here. Thanks everyone for posting, keep them coming. PS- I am checking out that website now.

-Dylan

[Emrys]

deleted due to revised hypothesis

[Cold Fission]

This makes more sense hehe

[Emrys]

I saw something on a TV show on chimps and I thought of this post.

On the show it talked about how the males that killed an animal would share it with the other alpha males and then share some with the females. They said those females were more likely to remember the favor and mate with them later on. I think it is pretty relevant to relate our behaviors to chimpanzees since they are the closest living relative we have.

My guess is that it could have been the same with humans. Since we are by no means equipped physically to be predators it would have been more likely that the smarter males would have devised methods of hunting and subsequently been more likely to mate with females.

Maybe it's not right but it is at least more likely in my opinion. We can only really ever guess at what made us human and will likely never know. It's just a plausible alternative for the sake of debate. That is if eating meat were the only reason and it wasn't caused by anything else. Anyway that is one of the primary drivers of evolution, our choices on who we decide to mate with.

[Cappy]

The theory is very flawed. In order for humans to eat meat, they needed the intelligence to create weapons to hunt. So, the intelligence came first, then eating meat. And I use the term intelligence loosely.

[HIT Rob]

I've done a quite a bite of research into evolution over the last 15 years or so (bit of a hobby), but when it comes to what made us human, there is circumstantial evidence to show cooking food had a lot to do with it, this allowed for us to develop smaller stomachs and larger brains. Of course, there are other factors, but from what I've read, i don't believe meat had anything to do with making us human, however i do believe (depending on the environment) meat and fish consumption would have been a must for survival.

[HIT Rob]

The theory is very flawed. In order for humans to eat meat, they needed the intelligence to create weapons to hunt. So, the intelligence came first, then eating meat. And I use the term intelligence loosely.

Paleolithic man didn't have to be a good hunter, rather, a good opportunist.