article_snippet: A new test that can identify whether long-dead ancient humans had suffered from malaria could help scientists trace how the disease has evolved.
article_snippet: Archaeologists at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, have developed a way of diagnosing the disease in skeletons thousands of years old.
article_snippet: The method could now be used to track the spread of malaria back to The method first appearance in humans by examining other ancient skeletons for signs of the infection.
article_snippet: Jamie Inwood, an archaeologist at Yale University who led the research team, said: 'The data set Jamie Inwood, an archaeologist at Yale University who led the research team build with this will be revolutionary for establishing the epidemiological curve for malaria in ancient societies.
article_snippet: Miss Inwood and her colleagues developed the test by identifying specific chemical signals and molecules that are found in the bones of people infected with malaria.
article_snippet: Miss Inwood was suspected there must have been an epidemic in the community that caused fever or fits.'
article_snippet: Professor Roderick McIntosh, an anthropologist at Yale University who also took part in the work, said the test could now help reveal when and where the disease first began infecting humans.
article_snippet: Professor Roderick McIntosh, an anthropologist at Yale University who also took part in the work said: 'There is a constant evolution of the disease, because of changes in human populations and changes in the medicines we use to treat it. '
article_snippet: Knowing the history of the mechanisms by which malaria evolves is a very good thing.
article_snippet: we want to put together enough data for a timeline of malaria in humans.'
highlights_snippet: Scientists at Yale University developed a new way of diagnosing malaria .
  
highlights_snippet: children that died 1,500 years ago say This could be used to trace the spread of malaria in human history .