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Illustration by Michael Rothman Before An Australopithecus, sporting full-bodied fur about four million years ago. After An archaic human walked fur-free about 1.2 million years ago, carrying fire on the savanna ONE of the most distinctive evolutionary changes as humans parted company from their fellow apes was their loss of body hair. But why and when human body hair disappeared, together with the matter of when people first started to wear clothes, are questions that have long lain beyond the reach of archaeology and paleontology. Ingenious solutions to both issues have now been proposed, independently, by two research groups analyzing...

Lice from mummies provide clues to ancient migrations By John Noble Wilford Published: February 6, 2008 When two pre-Columbian individuals died 1,000 years ago, arid conditions in the region of what is now Peru naturally mummified their bodies, down to the head lice in their long, braided hair. This was all scientists needed, they reported Wednesday, to extract well-preserved louse DNA and establish that the parasites had accompanied their human hosts in the original peopling of the Americas, probably as early as 15,000 years ago. The DNA matched that of the most common type of louse known to exist worldwide,...

Humans caught pubic lice, aka "the crabs," from gorillas roughly three million years ago, scientists now report. ADVERTISEMENT 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...

Pubic lice leapt from gorillas to early humans 18:26 07 March 2007 NewScientist.com news service Roxanne Khamsi A genetic analysis of pubic lice suggests the parasites were transferred between early humans and gorillas about 3.3 million years ago. Researchers say the findings suggest close contact between our ancestors and gorillas. But they claim it is far more likely that early humans caught the lice from sleeping in abandoned gorilla nests than from having sex with gorillas. Pubic lice – also known as crabs – can leave irritating spots on the skin when they feed on the blood of their hosts....

Humanity's bug-infested past might be why we have more allergies today (Image: James Gathany/ Center for Disease Control and Prevention, USA) It is well established that intestinal parasites dampen mammalian immune reactions. But in a surprise result, scientists have found that another kind of parasite – the body louse – does too. That means the epidemic of allergic disorders in modern, urban people might be due to our having rid ourselves of lice and worms.

Using DNA to trace the evolutionary split between head and body lice, researchers conclude that body lice first came on the scene approximately 190,000 years ago. And that shift, the scientists propose, followed soon after people first began wearing clothing... sheds light on a poorly understood cultural development that allowed people to settle in northern, cold regions, said Andrew Kitchen of Pennsylvania State University in University Park. Armed with little direct evidence, scientists had previously estimated that clothing originated anywhere from around 1 million to 40,000 years ago. An earlier analysis of mitochondrial DNA from the two modern types of...

One of the more embarrassing mysteries of human evolution is that people are host to no fewer than three kinds of louse while most species have just one. Even bleaker for the human reputation, the pubic louse, which gets its dates and residence-swapping opportunities when its hosts are locked in intimate embrace, does not seem to be a true native of the human body. Its closest relative is the gorilla louse. (Don’t even think about it.) Louse specialists now seem at last to have solved the question of how people came by their superabundance of fellow travelers. And in doing...

Extinct humans left louse legacy By Paul Rincon BBC News Online science staff The evolutionary history of head lice is tied very closely to that of their hosts Some head lice infesting people today were probably spread to us thousands of years ago by an extinct species of early human, a genetics study reveals. It shows that when our ancestors left Africa after 100,000 years ago, they made direct contact with tribes of "archaic" peoples, probably in Asia. Lice could have jumped from them on to our ancestors during fights, sex, clothes-sharing or even cannibalism. Details of the research appear...

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A new University of Florida study following the evolution of lice shows modern humans started wearing clothes about 170,000 years ago, a technology which enabled them to successfully migrate out of Africa. Principal investigator David Reed, associate curator of mammals at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus, studies lice in modern humans to better understand human evolution and migration patterns. His latest five-year study used DNA sequencing to calculate when clothing lice first began to diverge genetically from human head lice. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the study is available online and...

A new University of Florida study following the evolution of lice shows modern humans started wearing clothes about 170,000 years ago, a technology which enabled them to successfully migrate out of Africa. Principal investigator David Reed, associate curator of mammals at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus, studies lice in modern humans to better understand human evolution and migration patterns. His latest five-year study used DNA sequencing to calculate when clothing lice first began to diverge genetically from human head lice. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the study is available online and appears in this...

A new study offers compelling genetic evidence that head and body lice are the same species. The finding is of special interest because body lice can transmit deadly bacterial diseases, while head lice do not. The study appears in the journal Insect Molecular Biology. Scientists have long debated whether human head and body lice are the same or different species. The head louse (Pediculus humanus capitis) is a persistent nuisance, clinging to and laying its eggs in the hair, digging its mouthparts into the scalp and feeding on blood several times a day. The body louse (Pediculus humanus humanus) tends...

On Saturday deputies responded to reports of shots fired east of the City of Williston large annual gathering of people labeled as "Crab Festival," according to a news release from the Levy County Sheriff's Office. Five people were shot, including a 36-year-old man who died. But it really wasn't a "Crab Festival," even though that's how this annual gathering-- which attracted 10,000 people this year -- is labeled, deputies said.

OK, I decided that I had to take action to prevent this environmental holocaust. So head on over and sign my petition. Let’s see if we can break a hundred thousand.

Headline seen briefly on WBZ-TV website before it got pulled down: IF PATRIOTS WIN, MENINO WILL GET CRABS

Deadliest Catch was nominated this season for four Emmy's. "Deadliest Catch" went up against "Myth Busters" for Outstanding Reality Program and won. "Deadliest Catch" also captured the Emmy for Outstanding Cinematography, Outstanding Picture Editing and Outstanding sound mixing. This is great news for fans (and cast members and producers and editors and cameramen) who've been watching the show for a long time. The creative arts industry has affirmed and acknowledged the intelligent and inspiring television that most of its viewers have seen as the show developed into a more intense interpersonal drama from a random story of water cowboys searching...

<p>Florence Henderson, the actress who played perky mom Carol Brady in the beloved family sitcom, says she once got crabs after a one-night-stand with career politician John Lindsay, who was the mayor of New York City at the time.</p> <p>Henderson, now 77, recounts in her upcoming memoir that she was cheating on her husband during the 1960s, and gave in to her better judgment when her married and unattractive friend put the moves on her over drinks at the Beverly Hills Hotel.</p>

A Japanese reporter in Nanjing shows us a vending machine that sells live Shanghai Hairy Crabs:The inside of the machine is kept at 5 degrees celsius, a temperature cold enough to make the crabs go into a state of hibernation. A sign states that all the crabs in the machine are fresh: if the crab is dead-on-arrival, they promise to give you three free crabs. Converted into yen, the prices for the crabs range between 120 and 600 yen (depending on size). By cutting out the cost of store personnel, the seller can offer the crabs at 30% less than...

Hey! For all you Deadliest Catch fans..... I have been struggling for the past year since Captain Phil Harris died, on how to honor him and my dad, who died about4 months or so after Phil did. 2010 was a year of loss, so I decided to do something to create on the first episode of 2011, Season 5 of Deadliest Catch. So, with my favorite Phil Harris Quote, we begin: "You can watch things happen. You can make things happen. Or you can wonder what the f**k just happened. I don't want to be on number 3"

First, it was birds falling from the sky, then thousands of dead fish washing up on shore. Now, more than 40,000 Velvet swimming crabs have wound up dead on England beaches. The possible reason? Hypothermia. The Thanet shoreline is littered with the crabs, along with dead starfish, lobsters, sponges and anemones. The crabs benefit from warm seas, but when winter hits and snow covers the beaches, they just can’t handle the freezing temperatures, Tony Child, Thanet Coast Project manager, told the Star. “It is a horrendous crash in the population,” he said, adding similar crab deaths happened in the same...

Those latex gloves Transportation Security Administration agents wear while giving airline passengers those infamous full-body pat-downs apparently aren't there for the safety and security of passengers – only the TSA agents. That's the word being discussed on dozens of online forums and postings after it was noted that the agents wear the same gloves to pat down dozens, perhaps hundreds, of passengers, not changing them even though the Centers for Disease Control in its online writings has emphasized the important of clean hands to prevent the exchange of loathsome afflictions. "Herpes via latex glove ... ewwww," wrote one participant on...