One of the genetics findings from the Cheddar Man analysis that received less attention than the pigmentation findings but is equally significant is the question of lactose tolerance.

Cheddar Man, the analysis showed, was lactose intolerant.

Specifically, the variant in the LCT gene that enables the continued production of lactase — the enzyme that digests lactose, the sugar in milk — into adulthood was absent from his genome.

He had the ancestral form of the gene, which causes lactase production to decline after childhood, as it does in most mammals.

This finding is significant for multiple reasons.