Gorillas spread lice to humans

According to a recent study, about 3.3 million years ago, gorillas have brought lice to our ancestors' ancestors and humans have had lice since. These nasty parasites, which live on pubic hair and other areas of human hair except the scalp, suck blood and may only last for a short time if no animals are given it lives parasites.

Dr David Reed, lead author of the study and a woman who preserved mammals at the Museum of Natural History in Florida, said: 'We know that in recent times people have close interaction with gorillas; but unfortunately there is still an activity to buy and sell wild animals to verify this. However, we can now conclude that ancient humans and gorillas might have lived close together 3.3 million years ago, something that had never been known before. '

Did we bring you to?Um!(Photo: iStockphoto)

Reed and his colleagues speculate that the exposure may have occurred at least in three ways: the relationship between gorillas and the first-person animals, the ancient people who control and control. gorillas or sleeping places. Reed said: 'We cannot rule out the first or any other possibility.'

He and his research team studied the lice taken from primates in Ugandan wildlife sanctuaries. The lice on gorillas today represent a species that is different from lice in modern humans because of parasitic animals that evolve along with the animals it lives on.

Reed and his colleagues extracted DNA from the lice. They then used fossil data from humans and gorillas to estimate how long these two parasites had shared a common ancestor. The results of their research have been published in the latest issue of BMC Biological Journal.

Reed said: 'The time that these two lice had the same ancestor, 3.3 million years ago, much earlier than the time when gorillas and humans last shared an ancestry was the way. here 7-9 million years. That means that a change in the animals they live on parasites took place 3.3 million years ago. '

The study also hypothesized that lice on human heads originated from contact with chimpanzees . Today, gorillas suffer from pubic lice and not lice on their heads while chimpanzees only have head lice. Lance Durden, associate professor of biology at the University of Southern Georgia, said the results of the study are significant.

Speaking of lice on the head and lice on the body, Daren said: 'For a long time parasitic researchers have found it difficult to understand why humans are unique in having two types of lice suck blood. Thanks to the detection of sophisticated molecular phylogeny, David Reed and his team have come up with a convincing and detailed answer. It is quite possible that humans take lice from gorillas in ways other than sex like sleeping in the same place - hoping not to sleep at the same time - or controlling gorillas while hunting or eating them . '

Dale Clayton, a biology professor from the University of Utah, says these possibilities are a real dilemma and that is true.

Thien Kim