How Humans Made Malaria So Deadly

To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:  Malaria - a life-threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. Parasite - an organism that benefits by living in/on a host organism and deriving nutrients at the host's expense. Host - an organism in/on which another organism lives. Protozoa - a group of single-celled microscopic animals (not bacteria or viruses) that includes the Plasmodium species. Plasmodium - a genus of parasitic protozoa, many of which cause malaria in their hosts. Four species regularly infect humans: P. falciparum, P. vivax, P. malariae, & P. ovale. P. falciparum - the Plasmodium species that kills the most people, by causing malignant malaria, the most dangerous form of malaria. Anopheles gambiae - a ‘complex' of at least seven species of mosquitoes that are the main vectors of P. falciparum in sub-Saharan Africa. Species complex - a group of closely related species that look so similar that the boundaries between them are often unclear. Hunting and gathering - depending primarily on wild foods for subsistence Paleontology - the study of fossils and what fossils tell us about the past, about evolution, and about how humans fit into the world. MinuteEarth is produced by Neptune Studios LLC https://neptunestudios.info If you like what we do, you can help us! - Become our patron: https://patreon.com/MinuteEarth   - Buy our merch: http://dftba.com/minuteearth   - Buy our book: https://minuteearth.com/books - Sign up to our newsletter: http://news.minuteearth.com   - Share with your friends and family - Leave us a comment (we read them!) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices