ingenuity have teased from milk. A sip of
milk itself or a scoop of ice cream can be a
Proustian draft of youth’s innocence and
energy and possibility, while a morsel of fine
cheese is a rich meditation on maturity, the
fulfillment of possibility, the way of all flesh.
Mammals and Milk
The Evolution of Milk
How and why did such a thing as milk ever
come to be? It came along with warm-
bloodedness, hair, and skin glands, all of
which distinguish mammals from reptiles.
Milk may have begun around 300 million
years ago as a protective and nourishing skin
secretion for hatchlings being incubated on
their mother’s skin, as is true for the platypus
today. Once it evolved, milk contributed to
the success of the mammalian family. It gives
newborn animals the advantage of ideally
formulated food from the mother even after