On Wed, 1 Apr 1998, Liz Pavek wrote:

> I think the Eskimos have been in the north since the landbridge.  That's
> more than a "few thousand" years.  Their diets are eminently suitable to
> humans in general, who haven't changed that much in that amount of time.

Recent research has pushed the crossing back to about 40,000
years ago, and that is based on remains found in South America.
This means that the original crossers probably arrived
significantly earlier.  Since then, they have remained a rather
isolated breeding population until contemporary times.  This
means that they might well have adaptations to their conditions
that are not found in the general population.  That is, they may
be well adapted to conditions that the most of the rest of
humanity has never had to adapt to.

I can't see any reason to suppose that populations of humans
could not become significantly differentiated dietetically in
40,000 years.  It's not as though they would have to grow an
extra limb or undergo some other radical morphological change.
All that would be needed is some shifting in concentrations of
various digestive enzymes.  Relatively small shifts could have
large consequences in terms of what counts as optimal nutrition.

Todd Moody
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