Lice DNA could help us better understand the migration patterns of ancient humans to the Americas, new research shows.
In what might be one of the grossest and most intriguing research cases I’ve read about this year, scientists have started using lice DNA to help them learn more about ancient humans , including when different groups of humans arrived in the Americas . I could make a joke about how this dilemma has left scientists scratching their heads, but the Smithsonian already beat me to that punch.
According to a new piece of research published in PLOS One this week, researchers found two distinct clusters of louse, which suggests that the two clusters migrated to America with different human hosts. The first group came on the heads of the East Asians who first populated the Americas. The second didn’t arrive until thousands of years later when the European colonists began to travel to the Americas.
Lice DNA Ancient Humans Americas Research
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What head lice can tell us about human migrationLaura is a science news writer, covering a wide variety of subjects, but she is particularly fascinated by all things aquatic, paleontology, nanotechnology, and exploring how science influences daily life. Laura is a proud former resident of the New Jersey shore, a competitive swimmer, and a fierce defender of the Oxford comma.
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