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Published online 5 October 2004 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news041004-4
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Early man left trail of lice
Our ancestors may have caught nits from their primitive cousins.
Humankind's inexorable spread across the globe may have had an unwelcome side-effect - it brought us face to face with our ancient hominid relatives just long enough to catch their head lice. Researchers have discovered that there are two distinct lineages of modern lice, one of which presumably evolved on the scalps of another human species before making the jump to our own.
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