The "Smoking" Louse.

[swestrup]

It seems that the genetics of Head-Lice has told us something about early man. It has been determined (I wish there was some evidence of HOW) that one of the two major strains of head-lice that infest humans once infested Homo Erectus (Which BTW is a great name for a band.)

This shows that about 30,000 years ago, Homo Sapiens and Homo Erectus had contact. Up until now it was assumed that they had died out before we ever came on the scene. Now it looks like, along with the Neandertals, their extinction happened after we interacted with them -- possibly quite violently.

No one knows if we also tried to mate with them, but these stalwart researchers are now working on the lineages of pubic lice to try and find out...

Comments

[ims.livejournal.com]

Well, given that some people are into sheep, I imagine that *someone* will have tried.

[swestrup]

Of course, but its unlikely that a pubic louse will have had a chance to colonize this new 'niche' unless the practice was relatively widespread.

[sps.livejournal.com]

It's just that it sounded a bit silly when you said 'no one knows'. I've seen people try to mate with buildings - indeed, it's amazing that more humans don't come down with dutch elm disease.

[swestrup]

Well, I *could* have said that no one knows if we managed to have any gene transfer from them before we wiped them out, or if it was attempted. This feeds back into the old debate about whether there are any genes we got from the Neandertals.

But, I was in a whimsical mood when I wrote the above...

[sps.livejournal.com]

I, of course, am immune to whimsy.

[swestrup]

So, is that a +20 DEF (hardened, only vs whimsy) sort of thing or more like the old Desolid-only-to-whimsy hack?

[sps.livejournal.com]

You'd have to ask my player, silly man!