I thought this might be of interest. While reading a book the other day on
human senses and oddities  I saw mention of the fact that the smell that
humans are supposedly most sensitive to is Methyl Mercaptan.  It seems that
this a major component of the smell of rotting meat.  This seems important
to me.  Why would we evolve such a sensitivity? My thinking is that it is a
survival sense thatt would have allowed us to avoid eating the carcases of
animals that had decomposed too far and hence were dangerous from the point
of view of food poisoning, although one of my lecturers here at uni had an
alternative view. If we were scavenging carcasses our sensitivity to methyl
mercaptan may have led us to a carcass. I am open to the possibilities and
would be interested in other viewpoints.

A brief search of the net revealed much about methyl mercaptan but more from
a chemical/industrial slant, with nothing Paleodiet/human sense related, so
if anyone can add to my info I'd appreciate it.  Methyl Mercaptan is added
to gas so that we can smell it for safety reasons.

Cheers

Sean McBride