Scientists have identified a hominim species with a smallish brain and dish-like face that was likely responsible for spreading genital herpes to humans between three and 1.4 million years ago.
Two herpes simplex viruses infect primates from unknown evolutionary depths. In modern humans these viruses manifest as cold sores (HSV1) and genital herpes (HSV2).
Unlike HSV1, however, the earliest proto-humans did not take HSV2 with them when our ancient lineage split from chimpanzee precursors around seven million years ago.
Somewhere between three and 1.4 million years ago, HSV2 jumped the species barrier from African apes back into human ancestors — probably through an intermediate hominin species unrelated to humans. Hominin is the zoological tribe to which our species belongs.
Scientists from University of Cambridge and Oxford Brookes University in UK believe may have identified the culprit — Parathropus boisei.
In a study published in the journal Virus Evolution, researchers suggest that P boisei most likely contracted HSV2 through scavenging ancestral chimp meat where savannah met forest — the infection seeping in via bites or open sores.