Malaria evolved alongside anatomically modern humans and moved with our ancestors as they migrated out of Africa around 60-80,000 years ago

An international team has tracked the progress of malaria across the tropics by characterizing them by DNA sequencing and were able to calculate the age of the parasite. The scientists discovered clear correlation of decreasing genetic diversity with distance from sub-Saharan Africa. This accurately mirrored the same data for humans suggesting strong evidence of co-evolution and migration.