Slight problem there with the cacao beans Angela, they're native to the Americas only.

Not a problem at all, Vic. Assume that my hypothetical group of ancestors originated in South or in Central America. Adaptations can happen in any point in history. In fact, they're happening right now, even as we speak!!!

All humans originated from Africa, and the beans only grow 20 degrees North and South of the Equator.
Of course the Isthmus of Panama has only existed for about 2.8 Million years.
Now continental drift won't explain this by itself, but if some fossil cacao bean trees could be found in East African rocks, then you might have something.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Or perhaps we are descended from some other beast that ate a cacao ancestor. Or perhaps the adaptation was the other way for dogs, who may have lost this ability.

Alternatively, our ancestors could have developed an enzyme that helped them digest the fruit of a plant that wasn't cacao, but that maybe shared a distant plant ancestor with cacao. Then, when our ancestors encountered cacao by migrating to the Americas, they were more than half way there, "evolutionarily speaking", in terms of tolerating and eventually benefiting from cacao-calories in their diets.

Wikipedia is a fine tool, and I'll admit to using it both early and often, but it is only that - a tool.

When it comes to hypothesizing, theorizing and offering possible explanations for things that are not yet scientifically "known", I vastly prefer to stand on the shoulders of the great thinkers of our species. So in this case, thanks Charles Darwin!!!

Agreed, but then I don't always use the wiki, there are lots of edu sites, here and there on the net, and I've had since 1992 to explore.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

It seems Grapes and Cacao are related according to nature.com.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Amazon (and others) do indeed have access to them. I still have a few left from my last order. MINE!!

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Janice

Or perhaps we are descended from some other beast that ate a cacao ancestor. Or perhaps the adaptation was the other way for dogs, who may have lost this ability.

This is probably right, and silly, silly me for forgetting that it is easier to lose evolutionary traits than to gain them!!!

Some sort of placental mammal probably developed the ability to tolerate cacao, or tolerate some plant that shared an ancestor and some traits with cacao. Then when carnivores (like cats and dogs) split off from primates (like us), there was no evolutionary pressure for cats and dogs to continue to need to eat something cacao-related. On the other hand, there may have been great evolutionary pressure for primates to consume fruits that were related to cacao.

Thank you, Gary, for reminding me that evolution is not a forward-process, but a zig-zaggy mess, depending on what evolutionary pressures come and go over time!

Coyotes who to believe?
Wiki? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coyote

primarily carnivorous

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum? https://www.desertmuseum.org/kids/oz/long-fact-sheets/coyote.php

are omnivores

Or the survey person who drops by work from time to time with a photo trap and advised that it is rare for there to be fur in their scat.

Maybe there should be a distinction made between carnivores and obligate carnivores? Or maybe the coyotes of the Sonoran desert, over the past few generations, have been feeling the evolutionary pressure of hunger, and adapting (or dying) accordingly?

(Now THIS is what I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE about a Cafe in the forum of a science project. The place is jam-packed with excellent minds and skeptical thinkers who can take a thread from Almond Joys to coyotes in the blink of an eye!)

I always liked these:


and back again.

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I remember chewing on the wax, like gum, long after the favor was gone.

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...

Eric likes those bottle candies too.

Eric likes those bottle candies too.

I always knew that boy had good tastes.

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Coyotes who to believe?
Wiki? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coyote

primarily carnivorous

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum? https://www.desertmuseum.org/kids/oz/long-fact-sheets/coyote.php

are omnivores

Or the survey person who drops by work from time to time with a photo trap and advised that it is rare for there to be fur in their scat.

Maybe they don't eat the fur and skin their prey like dingoes do. I'm an omnivore but I definitely don't eat fur.

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Coyotes who to believe?
Wiki? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coyote

primarily carnivorous

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum? https://www.desertmuseum.org/kids/oz/long-fact-sheets/coyote.php

are omnivores

Or the survey person who drops by work from time to time with a photo trap and advised that it is rare for there to be fur in their scat.

Maybe they don't eat the fur and skin their prey like dingoes do. I'm an omnivore but I definitely don't eat fur.

You have knife and fork, coyotes have canine teeth. They find lots of fiber plant matter.

I always knew that boy had good tastes.

In women, indubitably.
In candy, not so much.

20 urchins. A tie with last year.

All 20 said "thank you".

We got 3 this year.

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With each crime and every kindness we birth our future.

Dunno if there were any this year as I was out most of the evening.
Did see a few roaming around Birmingham New Street Station, student-age, rattling buckets at the homeward bound commuters, a couple of the costumes were "interestingly deployed" on young ladies (first time I've seen a female Herman)

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

I'm told that fag is an offensive word in the USA. So I'll alter the previous post to "ciggies and beer".

Pinch a fag, sir?

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Nope, you've given up!

In the UK a fag is a very common term for a cigarette, and back in the mid 1800's Public School days, it also meant junior boys used as servants and messengers for senior boys. We also say we are fagged out when we are tired. It's the Americans that seem to put it to other uses.

No offense meant. When we over across the pond think of the word "fag". We equate it to your term "Nancy Boy".

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