Gad, campers! Max was telling the truth!
I tell ya, they came...
from that Gorilla taco I was eating!
Posted on 03/07/2007 9:48:12 AM PST by presidio9
Humans caught pubic lice, aka "the crabs," from gorillas roughly three million years ago, scientists now report.
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Rather than close encounters of the intimate kind, researchers explained humans most likely got the lice, which most commonly live in pubic hair, from sleeping in gorilla nests or eating the apes.
"It certainly wouldn't have to be what many people are going to immediately assume it might have been, and that is sexual intercourse occurring between humans and gorillas," explained researcher David Reed of the Florida Museum of Natural History. "Instead of something sordid, it could easily have stemmed from an activity that was considerably more tame."
Humans are unique among primates in that we host two different kinds of lice—one on our heads and bodies (Pediculus), the bane of many schoolchildren, and pubic lice (Pthirus). In comparison, chimpanzees have only head lice and gorillas only pubic lice.
Understanding the history of lice is important because they and other parasites yield valuable hints about the lifestyles of human ancestors and the evolution of modern humans, Reed said.
"Our own history is written in the DNA of parasites as well as ourselves, and by studying both we can come to a better, more complete understanding of our evolutionary history," Reed told LiveScience. "These lice really give us the potential to learn how humans evolved when so many parts of our evolutionary history are obscure."
Investigating lice can also help in understanding how parasites move from one species to another, Reed added.
"If you look at emerging infectious diseases that affect humans all over the world, most have their origins on some other host before threatening humans," he said. "Studying what it takes for a parasite to be successful in switching hosts adds to our knowledge about what makes a good host for the spread of disease."
Collecting lice
In collaboration with scientists who collected lice from primates in Ugandan wildlife sanctuaries, Reed and his colleagues extracted DNA from the parasites and used fossil data from humans and gorillas to estimate how long ago these two kinds of lice shared a common ancestor.
"The hardest part was collecting the gorilla lice, and without the help of our colleagues Chris Whittier and Michael Cranfield at the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project, we wouldn't have been able to do this project at all," Reed said. "They monitor the health of gorillas in Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Through their monitoring program they have been able to collect ectoparasites, including lice."
The researchers expected humans simply developed pubic lice on their own since this was a simpler explanation than acquiring the parasites from gorillas. However, they were proved wrong.
The evidence suggests gorilla lice began infesting humans about 3.3 million years ago. In contrast, humans and gorillas diverged in evolutionary time about 7 million years ago. The fact the lice took up residence where they did may have coincided with human loss of most hair on the rest of their bodies and the lack of any other suitable niche to live, Reed said.
The researchers detailed their findings in the latest issue of the journal BMC Biology.
Bush meat link
For this species jump to have occurred, the ancestors of humans and gorillas "must have been in the same place at the same time, which was not known before," Reed added. "The fossil record of gorillas in particular tells us very little about the gorilla lineage at the time this switch took place 3.3 million years ago."
These findings do not mean the lice were transmitted by monkey business between humans and gorillas.
"Unfortunately, even today among modern humans there's a bush meat trade where gorillas are killed for their meat," he said. "If archaic humans were butchering or scavenging those animals 3.3 million years ago, it would be a simple thing to transfer those lice from prey to predator."
"This paper makes one's imagination run wild, giving graphic new meaning to that '800 pound gorilla,'" biologist Dale Clayton at the University of Utah said in a prepared statement. "However, as the authors point out, the inferred host switch of pubic lice from gorillas to humans did not require sexual contact. Human pubic or 'crab' lice get transmitted between people on bath towels all the time. So it is easy to imagine that gorilla lice could have transmitted to humans via shared sleeping quarters, or predation, as the authors suggest."
Awjeez...
First it was teeth, now it's lice. That's it: I'm going to go sit and crochet something strange. Maybe I'll feel better!
Hey now! I know the blind date we set you up with was short, stocky and kinda hairy.......but to call her a 'gorilla' is just mean!
I have sobered up in bed with one or two.
"by studying both we can come to a better, more complete understanding of our evolutionary history," Reed told LiveScience"
How about this, Mr. Reed, the scientific method:
Observe
Hypothesize
REPEATABLY TEST THE THEORY
OK, how many repeatable experiments have shown one species "evolving" into another?
For that matter, how many repeatable tests have been done to "prove" global warming?
Can't prove either, so they are on par with other religions relying on unprovable faith.
No. Pork. (Ever heard of the term "long pig"?)
ping - just because
Of those not sexually transmitted, common zoonotics include measles, smallpox, influenza, TB, and diphtheria. HIV is probably also zoonotic (having mutated from SIV, which was once called HIV-II, until it became politically incorrect to do so), and possibly first made the jump via sexual contact (the mention of this possibility is also verboten in many circles - funny that the proclivities of degenerates in non-protected cultures do not necessitate a change in medical nomenclature and the outright elimination of scientific possibilities for purely emotional reasons. Bah...I mean, baaaaah).
And all this time I thought it was that girl in the massage parlor in Tempe, Arizona, back in '78
but then, I always blamed Jimmy Carter
Good God what the hell happened to her?
What's not to hate about this article?
Humans get crabs (Ugh. Don't remind me. Not that I'm saying...)
Gorillas get crabs too. (Brightens the day)
People got crabs from gorillas (oh, great), either by:
(a) having sex with gorillas (sounds like a bad idea. Sounds like something not human-initiated. Sounds like the edited out parts of Marlin Perkins. Makes one wonder if there's some other motivation to those crazed gorilla worshippers who hang out in jungles to be with the gorilla bands they study.)
(b) eating dead gorillas. Or, more specifically, eating the parts of dead gorillas that had pubic hair, so they could get public lice. Prehistoric man discovers the hot dog. Perfect. (well, you can just ROCK me to sleep tonight after THAT image).
(c) Hanging out in abandoned gorilla nests. I suppose that's not so bad, except for the fact that, among all the OTHER things we now have to worry about in the world, getting CRABS from going camping is now on the list. Swell.
Interestingly, they didn't mention a fourth and rather possible scenario...
(d) young male human hunters having sex with DEAD gorillas (lose your lunch yet?)
So, there's a perfectly unlovely set of mental images.
The only saving grace is that at least the article didn't come with any pictures...although my little finger tells me that there's a particular picture coming along now that I've said that, and the juxtaposition of that picture with the idea of crabs will make me - or any other healthy, normal person - vomit, so please don't...
Noooooooooooo.
No.
No.
Just NO!
NO posting of THAT picture on THIS thread!
AAAAAAAAAGH!
Considering that gorillas crap where they sleep, I'm rather doubting that humans caught the lice by using gorilla nesting sites.
"That gorilla's a dang liar."
Thanks a lot for bringing pocket protector science into a perfectly respectable thread about panty crickets.
So that was a 'bad theory' ping?
Dolphins attmept to rape humans all the time. It would not suprise me in the slightest if humans get raped from time to time by big male silverbacks. And he probably wouldn't particularly care if you were a male or a female.
Once a scientist, always a junk scientist, I guess...
You forgot yap dogs doin' the ankle dance.
LOL!
from that Gorilla taco I was eating!
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