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‘Tree of lice’ pinpoints first mammal with a louse infestation

More than 90 million years ago, an adventurous parasite crawled from a bird to an ancestor of modern elephants.
  1. Colin Barras

    1. Colin Barras is a science journalist in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

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There was a time, at least 90 million years ago, when mammals might have been blissfully free of lice. But it wasn’t to last. An ancient mammalian ancestor of today’s elephants and elephant shrews picked up the tiny skin parasites from a bird and kick-started a remarkable — and perhaps uncomfortably intimate — association between mammals and lice that continues today1.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01833-6

References

  1. Johnson, K. P., Matthee, C. & Doña, J. Nature Ecol. Evol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01803-1 (2022).

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  2. Leonardi, M. S., Crespo, J. E., Soto, S. & Lazzari, C. R. Insects 13, 46 (2021).

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  3. Boyd, B. M. et al. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 82, 3185–3197 (2016).

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