Tuberculosis is the world's leading cause of death by infectious disease, and it has been plaguing humanity for a very long time. In the first episode of a two-part series on infectious disease and human evolution, Dr. Anne Stone of Arizona State University investigates a mysterious case of tuberculosis in ancient Peruvian mummies and finds surprising new evidence in the search for the origins of TB.

Thanks to Anne Stone for sharing her work. Her lab is on Twitter @StoneLab and online.

Here's a link to Stone's Nature paper.

Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation. Learn more about The Leakey Foundation and help support science at leakeyfoundation.org

This episode was released on World Tuberculosis Day, 2016. Learn more at stoptb.org