The Smoking Louse

Scientists unraveling the genetic history
of head lice have found startling evidence that early humans mingled
with a clan of hairy, distant cousins as recently as 25,000 years ago
in Asia — a previously undocumented meeting that appears to have occurred
after the two peoples had evolved separately for a million years.

The more brawny but less brainy branch of humanity apparently went extinct
soon after that family reunion — echoing the fate of Neanderthals, who
also went extinct after making contact with the predecessors of modern
humans around the same time in what is now Europe.

"We’ve discovered the ‘smoking louse’ that reveals direct contact between
two early species of humans," said Utah’s Dale Clayton, who led the study
published in the journal PLoS Biology

It is not clear what happened during those cross-cultural exchanges. "We
may have mated with them; we may have eaten them. There’s no way to know," said
Alan Rogers, a University of Utah anthropologist who was involved in
the new work, being published today.

Or maybe both….

from The
Washington Post