arrangement of species: P. billcollinsi, P. gaboni and P. reichenowi only infect chimpanzees while P. adleri, P. blacklocki and P. praefalciparum only infect gorillas. P. praefalciparum appears to be the closest relation to P. falciparum. A review of the genomes of all the known species in this subgenus found that the divergence between P. falciparum and P. praefalciparum occurred between 40,000 and 60,000 years ago. The expansion of P. falciparum encountered a bottle neck between 4,000 and 6,000 years ago. It appears that P. falciparum has been introduced into South America on several occasions. The extant strains fall into two clades - one northern and one southern. The most probable origin of these strains is Africa and it seems that they were introduced with the slave trade. Analysis of 45 single copy nuclear genes from eight species (P. berghei, P. chabaudi, P. falciparum, P. gallinaceum, P. knowlesi, P. reichenowi, P. vivax, P. yoelii) using several different phylogenetic methods suggest a divergence data between 294 and 314 between Theileria and Plasmodium. Estimates of the mutation rates suggest a date of divergence between P. falciparum and P. reichenowi between and . Analysis of polymorphisms in the mitochondrial genes suggests a sub Saharan origin for P. falciparum with separate colonisations of Southeast Asia and Oceania. Given the distributions of the other members of Laverinia it seems likely all the known members of this subgenus originated in Africa. Another species - Plasmodium lomamiensis - has been described from bonobos. The name is derived from the Lomami National Park where the parasite was first identified. The relationship of this species to others in the subgenus has yet to be clarified. Another study has shown that the ancestor of P. falciparum was the gorilla parasite P. praefalciparum. This species first infected humans between 40,000-60,000 years ago and then underwent a population bottleneck 4,000-6,000 years ago. The common ancestor of this subgenus existed between and . At this time a division occurred into clade A (P. adleri and P. gaboni) and clade B - the other species in the subgenus. Within clade B, P. blacklocki diverged about 960,000 years ago and P. billcollinsi about 500,000 years ago. Within clade A, P. adleri and P. gaboni diverged about 140–230 thousand years ago. P. reichenowi and the ancestor of P. praefalciparum/P. falciparum also diverged about the same time. The P. falciparum population reached a nadir about 5,000 years ago