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The Coevolution of Lice & Their Hosts

Posted by samzenpus on from the lets-be-adults-about-this-everyone dept.

eldavojohn writes "It might be an uncomfortable subject but parasites are an interesting subject when it comes to evolution. Ever wonder if pocket gophers have lice? Well, they do. And most interesting of all is the evolution of these lice mirroring the evolution of gophers. To study the genes of lice may shed just as much light on evolutionary trees as studying the genes of the actual host the lice has evolved to. The most unsettling result from these studies is that human head lice and human pubic lice (crabs) vary so greatly that they are in two separate genera. There were similarities between our pubic lice and the lice found on gorillas. Scientists came to the conclusion, which they published today in BMC Biology, is just as striking as their earlier one about head lice. But it is hardly the same. We did not get pubic lice from other hominids. We got them from the ancestors of gorillas."

3 of 179 comments (clear)

  1. "Ever wonder if pocket gophers have lice?" by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 5, Funny

    To be perfectly honest ... um, let me think about this ... no.

    --
    The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
  2. So many responses, so little time... by jpellino · · Score: 5, Funny

    "We did not get pubic lice from other hominids. We got them from the ancestors of gorillas."

    #10. Speak for yourself, professor.

    #9. "coyote-ugly", move over...

    #8. Shhh... Hear that? I think Dave Attell's head just exploded.

    #7. Why is the waiting room empty? All I said was we...

    #6. "Scratch-a while you can, monkey-boy!"

    #5. Next on Springer...

    #4. Time to bring the crab-infested brass monkeys in off the back porch, Radar.

    #3. Yes, you heard me right, I need to get into those crabs' genes.

    #2. Let's say we ask Jocelyn Elders to weigh in on this one.

    and #1... Well I'll be a monkey's uncle, and a mighty itchy one at that.

    (N.B., I know gorillas are apes not monkeys, so save the posting effort, it's just a freaking joke...)

    --
    "Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
  3. Re:hair shape by Xonstantine · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It looks like its an arms race then.

    That's exactly what parasite-host relationships are. Evolution isn't so much a march in a straight line, but a vicious cycle of decimation-immunization-regression to naivete-back to decimation, ie, the Red Queen hypothesis. The really interesting thing is the degree to which parasites have affected evolution. A lot of secondary sex characteristics, because of their biological expense, are really good indicators of parasite resistance.