Humans Evolved to Use Less Water Than Apes
- Humans must maintain a tight balance of water gain and loss each day to stay alive.
- The evolution of water balance mechanism in humans is poorly understood.
- There are no comparative measures from other hominoids regarding water balance physiology.
- Humans drink water daily to maintain the balance.
- In contrast, rainforest great apes typically get adequate water from their food.
- Rainforest great apes can survive days or weeks without drinking water.
- Researchers compare measures of water turnover in apes (chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans) with 5 diverse human populations.
- Across all samples, water turnover is highly correlated with energy usage, physical activity, climate, and fat free mass.
- Human water turnover is 30 to 50 percent lower than other apes despite human’s greater ability to sweat.
- Zoo and sanctuary apes had similar water turnover with the wild populations as well as the ratio of water intake to dietary energy intake.
- However, zoo and sanctuary apes took a higher ratio of water to dry matter of food which might lead to digestive issues in captivity.
- Humans appear to target a lower ratio of water to energy intake.
- Researchers speculate that water stress due to changes in climate, diet, and behavior led to previously unknown water conservation adaptations in hominin physiology.
Source:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.02.045
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