Gorillas Gave Humans 'The Crabs'
Humans caught pubic lice, aka "the crabs," from gorillas roughly three million years ago, scientists now report.
Rather than close encounters of the intimate kind, researchers explained humans most likely got the lice, which most commonly live in pubic hair, from sleeping in gorilla nests or eating the apes.
"It certainly wouldn't have to be* what many people are going to immediately assume it might have been, and that is sexual intercourse occurring between humans and gorillas," explained researcher David Reed of the Florida Museum of Natural History. "Instead of something sordid, it could easily have stemmed from an activity that was considerably more tame."
Humans are unique among primates in that we host two different kinds of lice—one on our heads and bodies (Pediculus), the bane of many schoolchildren, and pubic lice (Pthirus). In comparison, chimpanzees have only head lice and gorillas only pubic lice.
* But he's not saying it wasn't.
https://www.livescience.com/1342-gorilla...crabs.html
