Malaria shaped human spatial organization for the past 74 thousand years
-induced malaria drove habitat choice in human societies 74,000 to 5000 years ago. Combining species distribution models of mosquito complexes, palaeoclimatic and epidemiological data, we estimated an index of malaria transmission risk in sub-Saharan Africa through time. We then correlated it with an independent reconstruction of the human niche, demonstrating that humans avoided or were unsuccessful in potential malaria hotspots. Our results highlight the importance of considering disease distributions when modeling past human demography, demonstrating that factors beyond climate underlay population structure, patterns of habitat choice, and dispersal.
Authors
- Andrea Manica (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1895-450X)
- James Blinkhorn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9399-5515)
- Margherita Colucci (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0934-194X)
- William D. Gosling (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9903-8401)
- Robert W. Snow (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3725-6088)
- Michela Leonardi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8933-9374)
- Seth R. Irish (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8709-8247)
- Eleanor M. L. Scerri (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7468-9977)
- Stefanie Kaboth-Bar
- Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias
Institutions
- Natural History Museum (GB)
- University of Liverpool (GB)
- Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (CH)
- University of Cologne (DE)
- University of Malta (MT)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Kenya Medical Research Institute (KE)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Institute for Biodiversity (DE)
- World Health Organization (CH)
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (DE)
- Freie Universität Berlin (DE)
- University of Amsterdam (NL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science Advances
- Published
- 2026-04-22
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aea2316
- Primary Topic
- Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Wellcome Trust