Your ancestry from the mites living on your face.

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  • January 31, 2016 at 12:17 pm #38415
    bnw
    Blocked

    DEC 14, 2015

    by Richard Conniff (author of House of Lost Worlds: Dinosaurs, Dynasties, and the Story of Life on Earth, and other books)

    When people talk about wildlife, they’re generally thinking about wolves running through forests, or maybe squirrels skittering about neighborhood trees. But let’s look a bit closer to home: Blink. Wildlife just took a ride on your eyelashes. If that makes you lift your eyebrows in puzzlement (or dismay), well, there are animals in your eyebrows too.

    In fact, your face is an ecosystem of long standing for two species, which have been passed on for generations in your family. They probably climbed aboard while you were nursing at your mother’s breast. Demodex folliculorum has evolved to live in human hair follicles. Its cousin Demodex brevis ensconces itself slightly deeper in the microhabitat of your sebaceous glands.

    Follicle mites, as they are commonly known, are distant relatives of spiders. They eat our dead skin cells, or maybe the oils, bacteria, and fungi on our skin, and they are, I should quickly add, utterly harmless. It’s even possible they perform some sort of housekeeping service, making us mutually beneficial: We give them habitat, they minimize zits. But no one really knows for sure. In any case, mites have coevolved with humans and prehumans for millions of years.

    http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/12/14/tiny-mites-live-your-skin-hold-key-your-ancestry

    The upside to being a Rams fan is heartbreak.

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