Rosa Rubicondior: Refuting Creationism - How Chimpanzees Have Evolved For Different Parasites, Including Malaria

Refuting Creationism

How Chimpanzees Have Evolved For Different Parasites, Including Malaria

Mother and baby chimpanzee in Uganda.

Kevin Langergraber, The Ngogo Chimpanzee Project.

Chimpanzees are genetically adapted to local habitats and infections such as malaria | UCL News - UCL – University College London

It can't be easy making a living as a creationist grifter when science continually undermines your claims, exposing your misrepresentation of evolutionary biology and eroding your credibility — even among the faithful supporters you count on to pay for confirmation of their biases. It must be a relief that your target will rarely, if ever fact check your claims, making them easy victims of your disinformation.

So, you can take comfort in the fact that none of your marks will read this piece of research that shows how chimpanzees are closely related to humans and have evolved over time to adapt to a number of different environments, much the way the ancestors of modern humans adapted when their environment changed from forest to savannah, some 6 million years ago.

Included in the study is how chimpanzees, who have been suffering from malaria for much longer than humans, humans having acquired their most deadly species of the plasmodium parasites from chimpanzees only some 300,000 years ago and possibly as recently as 50,000 years ago, have evolved resistance to the parasite so they now show almost no signs of infection.

Tell me all about the form of malaria that infects chimpanzees, how it is related to the human parasite and to what extent chimpanzees are resistant to it, please.

Chimpanzees are infected by malaria parasites closely related to those infecting humans, notably Plasmodium reichenowi and several recently described species. Here's a detailed breakdown:

Main Chimpanzee Malaria Parasites

Chimpanzees harbour several Plasmodium species:

Plasmodium reichenowi
This species was historically the first chimpanzee-specific malaria parasite discovered and described in detail. It is genetically and morphologically very similar to the human parasite Plasmodium falciparum.
Other closely related chimpanzee malaria parasites include:

Plasmodium gaboni
Plasmodium billcollinsi
Plasmodium billbrayi

These parasites form a group called the Laverania subgenus, shared by P. falciparum, the deadliest human malaria parasite.

Relationship to Human Malaria Parasites

Chimpanzee malaria parasites, especially P. reichenowi, are closely related to Plasmodium falciparum:

Common Ancestor:
Genetic studies strongly suggest that P. falciparum originated from a chimpanzee parasite lineage, probably P. reichenowi or an ancestor closely related to it. Thus, human P. falciparum malaria emerged from a zoonotic transfer from chimpanzees.
Genetic Similarity and Divergence:
Comparative genomic analysis shows that P. reichenowi and P. falciparum diverged approximately 50,000–300,000 years ago, although estimates vary. Both parasites share extensive genetic and antigenic similarities, yet differ in key surface proteins that help evade host immune systems.
Other Plasmodium species:
Beyond P. falciparum, other human parasites (P. vivax, P. malariae, P. ovale) also have close primate relatives, but the chimpanzee parasites specifically are closest to P. falciparum.

Chimpanzee Resistance and Disease Severity

Chimpanzees show intriguing resistance to their own malaria parasites:

Generally Low Disease Severity:
Despite persistent infections with these parasites, wild chimpanzees typically show few or no overt signs of malaria-like illness. This suggests significant immune adaptation and evolutionary resistance in chimpanzees.

Immunological Adaptation:
Chimpanzees have evolved an immune equilibrium with these parasites, allowing chronic, low-level infections without severe disease. This includes specialized immune responses involving antibodies, cytokines, and immune-cell responses that limit parasite replication and prevent severe symptoms.
Evolutionary Co-Adaptation:
Long-term coevolution has resulted in a stable host-parasite relationship, contrasting sharply with humans, who suffer high mortality and morbidity from infections like P. falciparum.
Experimental Observations:
Captive chimpanzees experimentally infected with P. falciparum also rarely experience severe malaria. Their natural exposure to related parasites likely provides partial cross-protection.

Insights for Human Malaria Research

Studying chimpanzee malaria parasites has substantial implications:

Vaccine Development:
Understanding the immune mechanisms chimpanzees use to resist severe disease may provide insights into vaccine strategies or immune-therapy approaches for human malaria.
Origins and Transmission Dynamics:
Clarifying how human P. falciparum evolved from chimpanzee parasites can enhance knowledge of zoonotic disease emergence, highlighting risks and prevention strategies for new zoonotic malaria transmissions.

Drug Resistance:
Comparing genomes of chimpanzee and human parasites could provide information on how parasites adapt to host immune pressures and drugs.

Summary

Chimpanzees are naturally infected by malaria parasites (Plasmodium reichenowi, P. gaboni, P. billcollinsi, and P. billbrayi), closely related to human P. falciparum.
These parasites are ancestral relatives from which the human parasite (P. falciparum) evolved.
Chimpanzees show significant resistance to severe malaria due to evolutionary immune adaptation.
Research on chimpanzee malaria parasites continues to shed important insights into human malaria origins, treatment, and vaccine strategies.

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Information Continually updated

The paper, by an international team lead by University College London (UCL) researchers, for creationists to ignore, is published in Science and explained in a UCL News item:

Chimpanzees are genetically adapted to local habitats and infections such as malaria
Chimpanzees bear genetic adaptations that help them thrive in their different forest and savannah habitats, some of which may protect against malaria, according to a study by an international team led by UCL researchers.
Chimpanzees bear genetic adaptations that help them thrive in their different forest and savannah habitats, some of which may protect against malaria, according to a study by an international team led by UCL researchers.

Chimpanzees are our closest living relatives, sharing over 98% of their DNA with humans, and the scientists say that their findings, published in Science, can not only teach us about our own evolutionary history, but also about the biology of malaria infection in humans.

Chimpanzees are endangered due to habitat destruction, poaching and infectious disease. The results of this study could also inform conservation as they suggest that climate and land use changes will likely have different impacts on different chimpanzee groups.

There are just a few hundred thousand chimpanzees alive, but they are found across very different landscapes from east Africa to the far west of the continent, including dense tropical rainforests and open areas of woodland and savannah. This makes them quite unique, because except for humans, all other apes live exclusively in forests. Here we have shown that besides acquiring behavioural adaptations, different chimpanzee populations have evolved genetic differences to survive in their different local habitats. As chimpanzees are facing threats across their range, including environmental changes to the climate and displacement due to human pressures, it is important that their genetic diversity is conserved to maintain their resilience and ensure the long-term survival of this intelligent and fascinating species.

Professor Aida M. Andrés, lead author
UCL Genetics Institute
Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment
University College London, London, UK.
To study genetic adaptation, the international team of researchers, from institutions across Africa, Europe and North America, needed to obtain DNA from the endangered and highly elusive wild chimpanzees without disturbing them. To do so, they used faecal samples that were collected as part of the Pan African Programme: The Cultured Chimpanzee (PanAf). State-of-the-art laboratory and computational methods enabled the scientists to study the chimpanzee DNA in these samples and perform the largest study of local adaptation in wild endangered mammals to date.

The researchers analysed the exomes (the protein-coding part of the genome) from 828 wild chimpanzees, 388 of which were included in the final analysis, representing 30 different populations of chimpanzees across the geographic and ecological range of the four chimpanzee subspecies. The scientists compared the genetic information to data about the local environment each chimpanzee population lives in, identifying genetic variants that stand out as being much more frequent in certain regions than others, and that likely confer a benefit to those carrying the genetic variant in particular habitats.

The scientists found evidence of genetic adaptation in genes related to certain pathogens (disease-causing microorganisms) among the chimpanzees living in forests, where there is a high concentration of pathogens, with the strongest evidence found in genes linked to malaria. This includes two genes that are also known to be responsible for adaptation and resistance to malaria in humans: GYPA and HBB, the latter being responsible for sickle cell anaemia in humans.

The findings suggest that malaria is likely a significant disease for wild forest chimpanzees and that adaptation to the malaria parasite has happened, independently, through changes in the very same genes in chimpanzees and humans.

The close genetic similarities between the great apes have resulted in diseases jumping from apes to humans, such as with malaria and HIV/AIDS, so studying wild chimpanzees is extremely useful to understand these and other shared infectious diseases in humans, and could help to develop new treatments or vaccines. Finding evidence of adaptation to malaria in chimpanzees linked to the same genes that affect malaria resistance in humans is striking from an evolutionary point of view, as it suggests there may be limited ways that we can evolve resistance to the malaria parasite.

Harrison J. Ostridge, first author.
UCL Genetics Institute
Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment
University College London, London, UK.
The study suggests that chimpanzees have also adapted to their savannah habitats, which have higher temperatures, lower rainfall and less food availability. This shows that studying savannah chimpanzees may shed light on how human ancestors adapted to similar habitats millions of years ago, when they first moved from the African forest to the savannah.

This ground-breaking study on chimpanzee local adaptations could not be accomplished without the extraordinary collaboration of an international team of scientists who worked tirelessly to collect non-invasive data, including faecal samples, from countries across the chimpanzee range.

Dr Hjalmar S. Kühl, co-author
Senckenberg Museum for Natural History Görlitz
Senckenberg, Görlitz, Germany.

We further welcome everyone interested in our research to contribute as community scientists at ChimpandSee.org, where one can help annotate videos collected alongside the genetic samples from across the chimpanzee range.

Dr Mimi Arandjelovic, co-author
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI EVAN)
Leipzig, Germany.

Structured Abstract

INTRODUCTION

How populations adapt to their environment is a fundamental question in biology. Yet, we know surprisingly little about this process, especially for endangered species, such as the nonhuman great apes. Chimpanzees, our closest living relatives, are particularly notable because they inhabit a diversity of habitats, from rainforest to woodland-savannah. Forests have closed canopies with high availability of food and water throughout the year, support high population densities, and harbor a diversity of pathogens and disease vectors. Conversely, savannahs are on the edge of the chimpanzee distribution in East and West Africa and are characterized by open canopies, higher temperatures, lower annual rainfall, and higher rainfall seasonality. Whether genetic adaptation facilitates chimpanzees’ habitat diversity remains unknown, despite having wide implications for evolutionary biology and conservation.

RATIONALE

Investigating signatures of local adaptation requires genomic samples from wild individuals with known geographic origins. Noninvasive sampling is the only option for many protected species, including nonhuman great apes; however, recent technical and analytical advancements are beginning to enable population genomic analyses on such samples. With fecal samples collected as part of the Pan African Programme, we sequenced the full exome (i.e., protein-coding regions of the genome) from hundreds of wild chimpanzees across their geographic and environmental range. Putatively neutral regions in previously published chromosome 21 (chr21) sequences from the same samples were used to generate null expectations.

RESULTS

Integrating genetic and environmental data provides evidence of fine-scale local genetic adaptation in the form of an excess of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with a measure of habitat. This includes genetic adaptations to both forest and woodland-savannah habitats. These results suggest that although tool use and thermoregulatory behaviors are important in mitigating environmental stressors, selective pressures still drive genetic adaptation in chimpanzees. Thus, both behavioral flexibility and genetic adaptation may explain how chimpanzees inhabit such a range of habitats.

SNPs inferred to be under positive selection in forests are enriched for pathogen-related genes, consistent with the higher infectious disease burden in these habitats. This highlights the potential importance of genetic adaptation in shaping infectious disease mortality and, therefore, the dangers of displacement and environmental change. Most notably, forest candidate SNPs in the western subspecies are strongly enriched for malaria-related genes. A range of malaria parasites infect chimpanzees, including three species closely related to Plasmodium falciparum, which is responsible for 90% of global malaria mortality in humans. However, the fitness effects of malaria in wild chimpanzees are poorly understood. Our results indicate that this disease may have driven local adaptation and could have fitness effects in present-day wild populations. Genes with signatures of positive selection in chimpanzees underlie resistance and adaptation to malaria in humans. This is notable from an evolutionary point of view and demonstrates how understanding chimpanzee evolution can inform human evolution and medicine.

CONCLUSION

We found evidence for the presence of locally adaptive genetic differences among populations of wild chimpanzees, even at a fine geographic scale. Just as previous studies highlighted the importance of conserving behavioral diversity, we emphasize the need to consider local genetic adaptation in conservation efforts to ensure that individuals are adapted to their local environment and retain adaptive potential. This is particularly relevant, as direct anthropogenic destruction, climate change, and disease transmission are rapidly changing the environments experienced by chimpanzees. Our study also demonstrates the value and promise of noninvasive sampling to investigate genetic adaptation in wild populations of endangered species.

Noninvasive sampling and genotype-environment association analysis found evidence of local genetic adaptation in chimpanzees. Exomes and whole chr21 were sequenced from hundreds of samples spanning the chimpanzee geographical and environmental range. Population locations are shown as circles on a map of West, Central, and East Africa, with sizes proportional to the number of samples. Genotype-environment association analyses found an excess of SNPs strongly associated with habitat in the exome compared with nongenic regions. Candidate targets of positive selection in forests are enriched for pathogen-related genes, particularly malaria-related genes. All, All subspecies dataset; C-E, Central-Eastern subspecies dataset; W, Western subspecies dataset. •False discovery rate (FDR) < 0.1, *FDR < 0.05, **FDR < 0.01.

Abstract

How populations adapt to their environment is a fundamental question in biology. Yet, we know surprisingly little about this process, especially for endangered species, such as nonhuman great apes. Chimpanzees, our closest living relatives, are particularly notable because they inhabit diverse habitats, from rainforest to woodland-savannah. Whether genetic adaptation facilitates such habitat diversity remains unknown, despite it having wide implications for evolutionary biology and conservation. By using newly sequenced exomes from 828 wild chimpanzees (388 postfiltering), we found evidence of fine-scale genetic adaptation to habitat, with signatures of positive selection in forest chimpanzees in the same genes underlying adaptation to malaria in humans. This work demonstrates the power of noninvasive samples to reveal genetic adaptations in endangered populations and highlights the importance of adaptive genetic diversity for chimpanzees.

Harrison J. Ostridge et al. ,
Local genetic adaptation to habitat in wild chimpanzees. Science 387, eadn7954(2025). DOI:10.1126/science.adn7954.

© 2025 American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Reprinted under the terms of s60 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This poses lots of things for creationists to ignore, apart from the obvious one of why their putative creator god created the P. falciparum parasite in the first place. Incompetence or malevolence?

There is the evidence of our common ancestry with chimpanzees, not only our parasites being closely related but also the same genes involved in our respective immune response to malaria.

Then there is the problem of why their putative creator gave chimpanzees an effective defence against malaria but not humans and of course creationist dogma prevents them explaining this as the result of chimpanzees being exposed to the parasite for much longer than us.

Then there is the evidence of chimpanzees evolving differently in different habitats, exactly as the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection predicts.

And lastly, there is the complete dependence of the scientists on the TOE to both predict and explain their findings, with no hint of the supposed impending abandonment of it in favour of creationist superstition.

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