Origin of clothing lice indicates early clothing use by anatomically modern humans in Africa.
Clothing use is an important modern behavior that contributed to the successful expansion of humans into higher latitudes and cold climates. Previous research suggests that clothing use originated anywhere between 40,000 and 3 Ma, though there is little direct archaeological, fossil, or genetic evidence to support more specific estimates. Since clothing lice evolved from head louse ancestors once humans adopted clothing, dating the emergence of clothing lice may provide more specific estimates of the origin of clothing use. Here, we use a Bayesian coalescent modeling approach to estimate that clothing lice diverged from head louse ancestors at least by 83,000 and possibly as early as 170,000 years ago. Our analysis suggests that the use of clothing likely originated with anatomically modern humans in Africa and reinforces a broad trend of modern human developments in Africa during the Middle to Late Pleistocene.
Toups
Melissa A
MA
Kitchen
Andrew
A
Light
Jessica E
JE
Reed
David L
DL
D000818:Animals; D000349:Africa; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002980:Climate; D003020:Clothing; D003080:Cold Temperature; D005580:Fossils; D010373:Lice Infestations; D008003:Phthiraptera / Q000235:genetics / Q000469:parasitology; D006801:Humans
Nature. 2008 Mar 27;452(7186):465-9
18368116
BMC Evol Biol. 2007 Nov 08;7:214
17996036
J Hum Evol. 1999 Sep-Oct;37(3-4):653-93
10497003
Heredity (Edinb). 2005 Jul;95(1):34-40
15931254
Mol Biol Evol. 2005 May;22(5):1185-92
15703244
Curr Biol. 2003 Aug 19;13(16):1414-7
12932325
Insect Mol Biol. 2005 Dec;14(6):625-43
16313563
Genetics. 2004 Jun;167(2):747-60
15238526
PLoS Biol. 2004 Nov;2(11):e340
15502871
PLoS Biol. 2005 Jun;3(6):e193
15898833
PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2010 Mar 23;4(3):e641
20351779
PLoS Biol. 2006 May;4(5):e88
16683862
Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2009 Feb;50(2):376-90
19027083
Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2004 Dec;33(3):936-43
15522814
Genetics. 2001 Jun;158(2):885-96
11404349
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2002 Apr 29;357(1420):563-79
12028792
Adv Parasitol. 1995;36:271-342
7484466
Nature. 2004 Jun 10;429(6992):623-8
15190344
BMC Biol. 2007 Mar 07;5:7
17343749
Nature. 2010 Apr 8;464(7290):894-7
20336068
Evolution. 2000 Dec;54(6):1839-54
11209764
Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2008 Jun;47(3):1203-16
18434207
Nature. 1998 Apr 30;392(6679):917-20
9582070