An ancient killer: Ancestral malarial organisms traced to age of dinosaurs
Monday, March 28, 2016 - 13:50
in Paleontology & Archaeology
A new analysis of the prehistoric origin of malaria suggests that it evolved in insects at least 100 million years ago, and the first vertebrate hosts of this disease were probably reptiles, which at that time would have included the dinosaurs. Researchers say it may have been involved in their extinction.