Friendly Carnivore

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[–] qyron@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 hours ago (3 children)

That is quite the assumption, modern frugivore apes only eat leaves when fruit is scarce.

I had to go read up a bit on the ancestors of the apes and I admit I have to agree on that. But given today's extant species of apes have diverse diets in between them, with gorillas being considered mostly herbivore, the same can be at least considered for ancestor species.

Fair enough, i'm open to better terminology. Must eat some meat needs a term that isn't overloaded.

I agree but I'm not the one to offer such word. Unless, as a species, we were able to develop some sort of intrinsic mechanism to obtain the vital B12, we are bound by our biology to source it out. But even in our shortcoming, we have a smart mechanism: we can store the vitamin in our liver. In my understanding, that hints at a time where the molecule was a very scarce resource.

Eggs are not carnivorous food?

It a contentious point of view, but nothing has to die in order for me to subsist when eating eggs. In a more wild setting this is much more debateable, I'll concede.

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[–] jet@hackertalks.com [S] 2 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

with gorillas being considered mostly herbivore, the same can be at least considered for ancestor species.

Modern apes are still frugivores, about 20% of their diet comes from fermenting leaves, but its not a significant percentage.

It a contentious point of view, but nothing has to die in order for me to subsist when eating eggs.

I see your moral stance, but in biology carnivore is a term of art describing the source of dietary inputs it has no moral component. Humans are mono-gastrics, but not a hind-gut fermenter, the bulk of our nutrition by our but biology is going to be meat or fruit, and we can't live on fruit alone.

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[–] qyron@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 hour ago (1 child)

Modern apes are still frugivores, about 20% of their diet comes from fermenting leaves, but its not a significant percentage.

I specifically mentioned gorillas as the species is classified as predominantly herbivore, with fruits making up a very small percentage of their diet.

If an extant species has this specific diet, it is at least plausible to conceive that ancestor species had it as well.

Humans are mono-gastrics, but not a hind-gut fermenter, the bulk of our nutrition by our but biology is going to be meat or fruit, and we can't live on fruit alone.

That would be the case if the species was intaking food raw, which is not the case. Cooking of food facilitates the access to nutrients in it, both for vegetable and animal source.

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[–] jet@hackertalks.com [S] 1 point 58 minutes ago

I specifically mentioned gorillas as the species is classified as predominantly herbivore, with fruits making up a very small percentage of their diet.

Fair point, i hadn't realized.

That would be the case if the species was intaking food raw, which is not the case. Cooking of food facilitates the access to nutrients in it, both for vegetable and animal source.

Cooking seems to be orthogonal to the discussion of species classification. People are feeding cats synthetic plant based diets now, but we still classify cats as obligate carnivores based on their natural diet in their natural environment.