Mosquitoes are the deadliest animals on the planet, killing hundreds of thousands Every year malaria, dengue fever and many other deadly diseases spread among the people. Understanding how insects first got a taste for human blood has long been a topic of curiosity for scientists, and it could help us better fight the spread of mosquito-borne disease. now a new study suggests that some mosquitoes’ thirst for human blood may actually be primitive, stretching back 1.8 million years — a time when our ancient human ancestors homo erectus Maybe thriving.
In the study published on Thursday scientific report, An international team of researchers analyzed the DNA of 40 mosquitoes from 11 species Anopheles leucosporus The group that is found in Southeast Asia. Upasana Shyamsundar Singh, a postdoctoral scholar at Vanderbilt University and lead author of the study, says that what makes this group of mosquito species so special is that some species are very fond of human blood, while others feast mostly on monkeys, gibbons and other primates like orangutans.
The team calculated that mosquitoes developed their “anthropomorphism” – their taste for human blood – about 2.9 million to 1.6 million years ago. This overlaps with the same period that some scientists believe H. erectus, an early hominin, arrived in the area.
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“The switch to human food was much older than we expected and so could not have happened in response to the arrival of physiologically modern humans,” says Katherine Walton, a study co-author and senior lecturer in earth and environmental sciences at the University of Manchester in England.
Mosquitoes have switched from other primates to hominins, such as ancient humans H. erectus “In this place and at this time, they must have been not only present, but abundant,” she says.
The results are not only relevant to researchers who study human evolution; They are also an important signal for epidemiologists who want to understand mosquito-borne diseases. These insects are still evolving, and with humans increasingly encroaching on wild areas – more mosquitoes may continue to adapt to preferring to feast on us than other animals.
“We are effectively creating new selective pressures and we should expect mosquitoes to respond to these,” says Walton.
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