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Asked by koonertwh to David, Helen, Ian, rhysphillips, Sarah on 20 Jun 2011.
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Rhys Phillips answered on 17 Jun 2011:
I’m not sure anybody knows that – it would probably have died out before intelligent live had evolved to document it.
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Sarah Cook answered on 19 Jun 2011:
Examination of ancient burial sites have shown several bacterial infections and parasites. Malaria has also been noted to have been around for a while.
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Ian van der Linde answered on 20 Jun 2011:
There have probably been diseases for only a very slightly shorter time than there has been life in general. Even simple single-celled organisms can catch diseases, so there were probably diseases knocking around that affected these very simple forms of life long before evolution gave rise to the complex multi-cellular organisms we see today.
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Helen Fletcher answered on 20 Jun 2011:
Early human remains show signs of disease and injury including arthritis, abscesses from infection and other bony abnormalities due to tuberculosis disease (25,000 years old!). But there were probably other diseases, but these are not so easy to detect in the archaeological record. You can use population genetics to look at mutations in strains of M.tuberculosis and that tells us that TB is a relatively “new” disease. So, it’s a great one for diagnosing in mummies but actually a pretty modern disease.
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facialhairkid commented on :
Do you think that the research into eclipses needs to be taken further