Lice To See You
By Helen Potter
It looks like the human race has a dirty little secret - we caught pubic lice from gorillas.
A new study from the University of Florida has shown that humanity acquired the lice about 3.3 million years ago - and no, it’s not what you're thinking.
Rather than close encounters of the intimate kind, humans most likely got the gorillas' lice from sleeping in their nests or eating the giant apes, said David Reed, assistant curator of mammals at the Florida Museum of Natural History and one of the study's authors.
The research stemmed from the fact that humans can host two types of lice, one on the head and body (Pediculus) and pubic lice (Pthirus). In contrast, chimps only have head lice and gorillas only pubic lice.
The researchers looked at whether pubic lice developed on their own in humans or were caught from gorillas.
"These lice really give us the potential to learn how humans evolved when so many parts of our evolutionary history are obscure," said David Reed.
Lice need either direct physical contact or recent contact to switch hopes, leading to theories that the lice may have been transferred by humans sleeping in gorilla nests or even by eating gorillas.
So you can put your dirty-minded theories away. Thank you.
Go to Helen's page. Sit back. Enjoy.
A new study from the University of Florida has shown that humanity acquired the lice about 3.3 million years ago - and no, it’s not what you're thinking.
Rather than close encounters of the intimate kind, humans most likely got the gorillas' lice from sleeping in their nests or eating the giant apes, said David Reed, assistant curator of mammals at the Florida Museum of Natural History and one of the study's authors.
The research stemmed from the fact that humans can host two types of lice, one on the head and body (Pediculus) and pubic lice (Pthirus). In contrast, chimps only have head lice and gorillas only pubic lice.
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| Humans caught crabs from dirty gorillas. Dirty humans. |
"These lice really give us the potential to learn how humans evolved when so many parts of our evolutionary history are obscure," said David Reed.
Lice need either direct physical contact or recent contact to switch hopes, leading to theories that the lice may have been transferred by humans sleeping in gorilla nests or even by eating gorillas.
So you can put your dirty-minded theories away. Thank you.
Go to Helen's page. Sit back. Enjoy.
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