Lletty'r Filiast Prehistoric Burial Chamber, Great Orme, Wales

Lletty'r Filiast Prehistoric Burial Chamber, Great Orme, Wales

are humans the only mammals that can eat chocolat? what about reptiles (birds included)?

in general, mammals are the only vertebrate family that has even a few members that can safely process the toxin theobromine and eat chocolate!

these species are basically just humans and a large chunk of the rodent family tree and its relatives (one of these things is not like the others). nothing else can have chocolate though, not fish or birds or turtles or lizards. just these specific mammals.

and here they are together! awwww.

birds are even extra-susceptible to the toxin, meaning that even a very small amount will kill them stone dead!

theobromine is absolutely not messing around. it's a very potent explode-your-heart chemical and it evolved to PREVENT vertebrates from eating cacao seeds, because those are the cacao tree's children and plants show parental love through chemical warfare.

humans don't care, though. humans will eat your children.

so, yeah. this is just another case of humans specifically being very weird.

and that's wonderful.

WHERE. IS. GEGE.