Consumption of Trace Elements and Minerals by Preagricultural Humans

The existing human genome reflects evolutionary experience of human and prehuman ancestral species extending ultimately to the origin of life on earth. Comparative studies reveal that over 98% of our genes are shared by chimpanzees and gorillas (1) so that most of our genetic makeup must antedate the hominid-pongid split when the ancestors of humans and chimpanzees diverged, perhaps five million years ago. Early hominine evolution, dominated by successive Ardipithecine and Australopithecine species, produced characteristics, including hairlessness and erect posture, which set our ancestors apart from other primates. However, it was the Pleistocene, the 2 5 million years preceding agriculture, during which the defining characteristics of contemporary humans were selected: our resting metabolic rate, body proportions, sexual dimorphism, daily foraging range (which became more like that of carnivores and less primate-like) and brain size (2,3). Under certain circumstances genetic evolution can be “rapid.” For example, significant changes in large mammal (e.g., red deer, mastodon, bison) body size have occurred in just a few thousand years. However, recent conditions have not been conducive to human evolutionary innovation. Increased population size and greater mobility have led to the conclusion that, “... never ever, in the history of any species, have conditions been less propitious for the fixation of evolutionary novelties” (4 – see also 5,6). So, while genetic evolution has continued since the appearance of agriculture, it is not hyperbole to maintain that from the standpoint of our genes all humans living in the present are still Stone Agers — well over 99% identical, genetically, to our ancestors of 15,000 years ago. Our biochemistry and physiology remain adapted for the lifestyle which existed then, not that of the present.