Researchers at University College London have found evidence that the milk-digesting gene emerged in Europe more recently than 5000 BC. The gene spread quickly across Europe, conferring a giant survival advantage in those who had it, because they could live on milk through cold, hard winters.
Analysis of Neolithic remains, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests no European adults could digest the drink at that time.
University College London scientists say that the rapid spread of a gene which lets us reap the benefits of milk shows evolution in action…
Today, more than 90% of people of northern European origin have the gene…
Dr Mark Thomas, from UCL, said: "The ability to drink milk is the most advantageous trait that's evolved in Europeans in the recent past."
(via Plasticbag)
