酒精的耐受性可能使人类的祖先免于灭绝

Our ancestors’ ability to metabolize alcohol may have saved them from extinction, scientists claim.

科学家声称，我们祖先代谢酒精的能力可能使他们免于灭绝。

Evolving to better handle booze could have given our prehistoric ape forebears the edge over rival species in ancient times, bringing them “back from the brink.”

进化到能更好地喝酒，这可能会让我们的史前类人猿祖先在远古时代比其他物种更具优势，让他们“从悬崖边上回来”。

In a new book, titled “Alcohol And Humans: A Long And Social Affair,” professors Dr. Kim Hockings and Dr. Robin Dunbar write that early African apes, who lived around 10 million years ago, evolved to carry a protein which allowed them to eat fallen fruits on the forest floor — many of which had begun to ferment and become alcoholic.

在一本名为《酒精与人类：一场漫长的社交活动》的新书中，金霍金斯博士和罗宾邓巴博士写道，生活在大约1000万年前的早期非洲猿进化成携带一种蛋白质，这种蛋白质能让它们吃到森林地面上掉落的水果——其中许多已经开始发酵并变成酒精。

It was a skill which gave them a major advantage in the survival against rival monkey species, who could only eat unripe fruits. At the time, ape populations were believed to have been dwindling, partly thanks to this fierce competition for food.

这是一项技能，使它们在与只能吃未熟水果的竞争猴子物种的生存上具有主要优势。当时，猿类的数量据信一直在减少，部分原因是这种对食物的激烈竞争。

Monkeys couldn’t — and still can’t — tolerate the ethanol in overripe fruits, which the authors say “might have brought apes back from the brink” of extinction.

猴子不能——而且仍然不能——忍受过熟水果中的乙醇，作者说，乙醇“可能把猿类从灭绝的边缘带回来”。

“Even today we see great apes eating fermented fruit and even drinking palm wine produced by humans,” said Dr. Hockings, from the University of Exeter.

埃克塞特大学的霍金斯博士说：“即使在今天，我们也看到类人猿吃发酵的水果，甚至喝人类生产的棕榈酒。”。

“It’s hard to be certain of why they do this and this reflects the complex history of our own relationship with alcohol.”

“很难确定他们为什么这样做，这反映了我们与酒精之间复杂的历史关系。

“One interesting point is that the alcohol level in fallen fruit is usually about 1-4 percent — something like weak beer.”

“有意思的一点是，水果中的酒精含量通常在1-4%左右，有点像淡啤酒。”

“Yet much of the alcohol consumed by humans today is far stronger than this.”

“然而，今天人类消耗的大部分酒精远远强于此。”

“As with other substances like salt and sugar, the problem may not be the substance itself but the concentrations we now have access to.”

“就像盐和糖等其他物质一样，问题可能不是物质本身，而是我们现在能接触到的浓度。”

Hockings co-authored the book with Dr. Dunbar, Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Oxford.

霍克斯与牛津大学进化心理学教授邓巴博士共同撰写了这本书。

The pair hope to test the ethanol levels in wild fruits to learn more about how species process alcohol.

这两位科学家希望测试野生水果中的乙醇含量，以了解更多物种是如何处理酒精的。