johnlawrenceaspden comments on A Medical Mystery: Thyroid Hormones, Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia - Less Wrong

23 Post author: johnlawrenceaspden 14 February 2016 01:14PM

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Comment author: johnlawrenceaspden 09 March 2016 05:21:42PM *  0 points [-]

Yes, an obvious one is the inability to manufacture Vitamin C. Universal in great apes, including us, but every other animal and plant can do it, except guinea pigs.

I imagine that at some point our ancestors lived in a vitamin C rich environment, so losing this was no immediate handicap. But even then, the random drift should have taken ages. Is there some reason why losing this pathway would be a benefit?

Same for colour-blindness. Is it drifting, or is it actually good for something in an environment where it does no harm? (These poor children, none of them will ever be commercial pilots or qualified electricians....)