Sujet : Animal drunks
De : eastside.erik (at) *nospam* gmail.com (erik simpson)
Groupes : talk.originsDate : 30. Oct 2024, 16:29:38
Autres entêtes
Organisation : University of Ediacara
Message-ID : <00203485-c4c8-4c1a-ac2d-8bec1936e6b7@gmail.com>
User-Agent : Mozilla Thunderbird
This is probably off-topic, but it may be a consequence of evolution, so what the hell..
https://www.cell.com/trends/ecology-evolution/fulltext/S0169-5347(24)00240-4
The evolutionary ecology of ethanol
Highlights
There is growing evidence that ethanol is encountered frequently enough in the natural world to favour mechanisms enabling its use in multiple animal lineages.
Since the Cretaceous period, fleshy fruits have provided a sugar-rich resource for fermentative yeasts and natural ethanol production. As such, the inclusion of ethanol in animal diets is likely just as ancient.
Moderate ethanol intake is associated with nutritional, medicinal, and cognitive benefits, but many of these remain understudied for non‐human species in natural contexts.
This challenges the current belief that modern humans are the only vertebrate that regularly and uniquely consumes ethanol and leads us to reconsider ethanol’s ecological role and evolutionary impact in nature.
Abstract
The consumption of ethanol has frequently been seen as largely restricted to humans. Here, we take a broad eco-evolutionary approach to understanding ethanol’s potential impact on the natural world. There is growing evidence that ethanol is present in many wild fruits, saps, and nectars and that ethanol ingestion offers benefits that favour adaptations for its use in multiple taxa. Explanations for ethanol consumption span both the nutritional and non-nutritional, with potential medicinal value or cognitive effects (with social–behavioural benefits) explored. We conclude that ethanol is ecologically relevant and that it has shaped the evolution of many species and structured symbiotic relationships among organisms, including plants, yeast, bacteria, insects, and mammals.