In a new book, Delicious, Rob Dunn and Monica Sanchez argue that deliciousness is an overlooked feature of the story of history of animal evolution and life in general and human evolution and life in particular. In this talk, Dunn shares stories from the book, stories about the pleasures of chimpanzees, the taste of mastodons, the mysteries of avocados and more. In doing so, Dunn will show how a consideration of flavor and deliciousness changes the way we think about and make sense of the natural world. Flavor and deliciousness shape the behavior of dogs and cats. They shape the use of tools by chimpanzees. Flavor and deliciousness may even, Dunn argues in his talk, account for some of the major transitions in human evolution.
Rob Dunn is professor of applied ecology at North Carolina State University and in the Center for Evolutionary Hologenomics at the University of Copenhagen. His books include Delicious: The Evolution of Flavor and How It Made Us Human with Monica Sanchez and Never Home Alone. You can connect with Rob on Twitter @RRobDunn.