“Believing that it is always best to study some special group, I have, after deliberation, taken up domestic pigeons,” wrote one Charles Darwin in On the Origin of Species. Four years earlier, Darwin ...

How well lice are able to latch onto pigeon flies and catch a lift to new bird hosts affects how the lice evolve. Lice species carried aloft by flies spread to more species and tend to speciate at ...

Dec. 8, 2003 – University of Utah biologists twirled louse-infested bird feathers on an electric fan and flew pigeons and doves like kites on strings in a study that found small lice stick to small ...

Using host-specific parasites isolated on individual pigeon 'islands,' the scientists showed that descendants of a single population of feather lice adapted rapidly in response to preening. They found ...

Going to the trouble of molting doesn’t really get rid of a bird’s lice after all. Furthermore, flying doesn’t blow off tough lice–unless a bird wears nail polish. Thus go the latest bulletins from ...

Next time you shake your fist at the pigeon that pooped on your freshly washed car, take a moment to ponder this: That bird's forefather may have been a highly decorated World War II hero. No really.

Human lice evolved alongside early humans, adapting to changes like reduced body hair and the development of clothing. While head lice primarily cause discomfort, body lice can transmit serious ...

The results, published yesterday (May 23) online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that the coevolution of hosts and parasites can be influenced by other species in the ...