Kangaroo ham. Rhino pie. Trunk of elephant. Horse's tongue. Domestic life was a trifle off at William Buckland's home. Some visitors to his Oxford, England, house in the early 1800s best remembered his front hallway, lined with the grinning skulls of fossilized monsters. Others recalled the live monkeys swinging around. But no one could forget Buckland's diet. A deeply religious geologist, he held the story of Noah dear, and he ate his way through most of Noah's ark. There were only a few animals he couldn't stomach: 'The taste of mole was the most repulsive I knew,' Buckland once mused, 'until I tasted a bluebottle [fly].'
袋鼠火腿、犀牛派、象鼻、马舌......威廉•巴克兰（William Buckland）的家庭生活有点怪。他的家在英国牛津（Oxford），19世纪初去过他家的部分客人记得最清楚的便是用狰狞的怪兽头骨化石装饰的门廊。还有些人则记得有活生生的猴子在周围荡来荡去。但绝没有人会忘记巴克兰的食谱。作为一名笃信宗教的地理学家，他对诺亚（Noah）的故事深信不疑，而且吃过诺亚方舟中的大部分动物。只有少数动物未曾被他装入胃中：他有一次说过，"鼹鼠的味道是我知道的东西中最令人反胃的，直到后来我吃了一只绿头苍蝇。"
Perhaps the most amazing thing about Buckland's carnivorous habits wasn't the variety. It was that his intestines, arteries and heart could handle digesting that much flesh, period. It is no less remarkable for people today, even those of us whose tastes run more to sirloin. Because if you look at where our species came from, none of our primate cousins could ever survive such a meat-intensive diet. Like so much else that makes us unique, we owe our ability to eat all of that meat to changes in our DNA.
巴克兰的食肉习惯最令人惊奇的或许还不是食物的多样性，而是他的肠道、动脉和心脏能消化这么多肉类。在这一点上如今的人也是很了不起的，只不过我们的口味更偏好于牛排。因为，如果你研究一下人类从何进化而来，就会发现我们的灵长类表兄弟没有一种能承受得住如此高的肉类摄入量。和让我们独一无二的其它许多事一样，我们吃肉的能力要归功于DNA的变化。
Monkeys and apes have molars and stomachs adapted to pulping plant matter, and in the wild they eat mostly vegan diets. A few primates, like chimpanzees, do eat a few ounces of termites or other animals each day. But for most monkeys and apes, a high-fat, high-cholesterol diet trashes their insides. Captive primates with regular access to meat and dairy products often end up wheezing around inside their cages, their cholesterol pushing 300 and their arteries paved with lard.
猴子和猿拥有适合磨碎植物的臼齿和胃，在野外它们主要吃素食。一些灵长类动物，例如黑猩猩，每天会吃几盎司白蚁或其它动物。但对于多数猴子和猿来说，高脂肪、高胆固醇饮食会损害它们的内脏。能定期吃到肉类和乳制品的圈养灵长类动物通常会在笼子里喘着粗气终老，他们的胆固醇高达300，动脉里堆满了油脂。
Our protohuman ancestors certainly ate meat; they left too many stone cleavers lying next to piles of bones for it all to be coincidence. And it isn't hard to figure out why they indulged. To most people, meat tastes really good. It provides precious protein, and it's packed with fatty calories, an important consideration when food sources were precarious. But for eons early humans probably suffered no less than other primates for their love of flesh
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