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Young World
Lousy stuff
Head lice taken from 1,000-year-old mummies in Peru support the idea that the little creatures accompanied humans on their first migration out of Africa, 100,000 years ago, say researchers. Genetic tests showed the lice are nearly identical to strains found around the world that have been dated to when humans first began to colonize the rest of the world. “It tells us that this genetic type got around the globe right as humans spread and migrated around the globe,
221; said David Reed of the University of Florida, who worked on the study. The lice were collected off the heads of two mummies found in the southern Peruvian coastal desert. “The mummies belonged to the post-Tiwanaku Chiribaya culture,” the researchers wrote. They were dated to around 1000 AD. The two heads, removed from the bodies by looters years before, had elaborately braided hair. Researchers collected more than 400 head lice from one and 500 from the other. “They were loaded. It was amazing,” Reed said. “It really was remarkable how lousy they were.”
COMPLIED BY NIMI KURIAN
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