Oxford Scientific
- Head lice have plagued communities for centuries across the world.
- They have evolved — and traveled — with humans to continually survive and find new hosts.
- Now, a new study suggests lice DNA can help track human migration from continent to continent.
Since humans have had hair, we've probably also had lice.
The small parasites, which live on human heads, have plagued school classrooms and sleepovers alike for centuries, but a new study shows a previously undiscovered good side to them — their DNA could hold answers to human migratory patterns.
Marina Ascunce, who works as an evolutionary geneticist at the US Department of Agriculture, told NPR the lice were like "heirlooms of our past."