Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42018618›Full record

ArticleScience advances2026

Malaria shaped human spatial organization for the past 74 thousand years.

Margherita Colucci, Michela Leonardi, James Blinkhorn, Seth R Irish, Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias, Stefanie Kaboth-Bar, William D Gosling, Robert W Snow, Andrea Manica, Eleanor M L Scerri

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Science advances, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

10 authors.

Margherita ColucciHuman Palaeosystems Group, Max-Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, Jena 07743, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-0934-194X
Michela LeonardiEvolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK.ORCID 0000-0001-8933-9374
James BlinkhornDepartment of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7WZ, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-9399-5515
Seth R IrishMalaria and Neglected Tropical Disease Department, World Health Organization, Geneva 1211, Switzerland.
Cecilia Padilla-IglesiasEvolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK.
Stefanie Kaboth-BarInstitute of Geological Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin 12249, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-4449-2938
William D GoslingInstitute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1090, Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0001-9903-8401
Robert W SnowKenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI)-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Nairobi 80108-230, Kenya.ORCID 0000-0003-3725-6088
Andrea ManicaEvolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK.ORCID 0000-0003-1895-450X
Eleanor M L ScerriHuman Palaeosystems Group, Max-Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, Jena 07743, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-7468-9977

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

While climate is often seen as the main driver of early humans' spatial organization in Africa, genetic and archaeological studies also suggest diseases as key selective forces in the Pleistocene. We explored whether

Indexed as

MalariaMalaria, FalciparumAfrica South of the SaharaAnimalsClimateEcosystemHumansPlasmodium falciparum

Identifiers

PMID42018618
PMCPMC13101881

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.