Malaria threat is as old as humanity, new research shows
Thursday, June 17, 2010 - 12:10
in Paleontology & Archaeology
New research shows that malaria is tens of thousands of years older than previously thought. This has the potential to inform new control strategies for the disease. Using DNA techniques scientists have found that the potentially deadly tropical disease evolved alongside anatomically modern humans and moved with our ancestors as they migrated out of Africa around 60-80,000 years ago.