Gorilla Sex?

By John Freeman on 10 March 2007

Gorillas may have been responsible for the introduction of pubic lice in humans, according to a new study. Evolutionary biologist David Reed of the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville USA has traced the genetic structure of lice and worked out when they first appeared, and the results show the lice, which infect some three million Americans a year, evolved well before they first plagued humans.

This suggests humans must have had close contact with gorillas to first become infected, posing the question: just how did they jump from gorilla to human, and what were the humans and gorillas doing at the time?

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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.