Amanda Dawn Melin

AMANDA MELIN, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, was awarded funding in May 2019 to aid research on “Evolutionary and Ecological Underpinnings of Human Ethanol Metabolism.” Understanding patterns of ethanol consumption is of longstanding interest to archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, and biological anthropologists. The proclivity for ethanol has roots in evolution that predate human-directed fermentation, and humans and African great apes are unique among mammals in their ability to efficiently metabolize ethanol. However, the origins of preferences for and adaptations to alcohol are still not well understood. We tested predictions of the dietary exposure hypothesis by measuring ethanol content in > 400 species of wild fruits in 16 countries. We discovered a large proportion of fruits produce ethanol, that fruits with mammal dispersal syndromes produce more ethanol than those consumed by birds and that fruit ethanol concentration varied intraspecifically, based on where fruits were collected from. These results advance our understanding of the eco-evolutionary potential of ethanol to shape primate physiology and behavior.