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DNA analysis of Cheddar Man reveals first modern Britons had 'dark to black' skin

[url=" https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/feb/07/first-modern-britons- dark-black-skin-cheddar-man-dna-analysis-reveals"]The finding shows that genes for lighter skin may actually have become widespread much later than originally thought. Cheddar Man has blue eyes, dark skin and dark curly hair. This is quite different to what people were expecting.

The BBC says:

"Pale skin probably arrived in Britain with a migration of people from the Middle East around 6,000 years ago. This population had pale skin and brown eyes and absorbed populations like the ones Cheddar Man belonged to."

It's so amazing that they can reconstruct what people looked like.

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Reply 1
I thought the first settlers were from the Arab region.
Reply 3
Original post by Puddles the Monkey
[url=" [url"]https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/feb/07/first-modern-britons-
dark-black-skin-cheddar-man-dna-analysis-reveals"]The finding shows that genes for lighter skin may actually have become widespread much later than originally thought. Cheddar Man has blue eyes, dark skin and dark curly hair. This is quite different to what people were expecting.

The BBC says:

"Pale skin probably arrived in Britain with a migration of people from the Middle East around 6,000 years ago. This population had pale skin and brown eyes and absorbed populations like the ones Cheddar Man belonged to."

It's so amazing that they can reconstruct what people looked like.That's very interesting :teeth:
Reply 4
We wuz slaves n' shiet.
Original post by Tootles
That's very interesting :teeth:


Super interesting.

I think I was listening on the radio and they suggested that pale skin/vitamin D thing became more widespread when people started farming, because prior to that hunter gatherers were getting enough Vitamin D from fish and other food sources :beard:
Reply 6
Original post by Puddles the Monkey
Super interesting.

I think I was listening on the radio and they suggested that pale skin/vitamin D thing became more widespread when people started farming, because prior to that hunter gatherers were getting enough Vitamin D from fish and other food sources :beard:
Now that is interesting. I thought pale skin was resultant from being exposed to less heat/light over however-many generations, like an inherited tan or something. Does this mean that a change in diet promted lessened sensitivity to UV? Weird but wouldn't surprise me.

I have to say I'm partly interested in this because a book I wrote about three years ago had characters from Europe ~20kya in it, and I wrote them as having dark skin and hair, and being rather broad-shouldered and broad-faced. Now I feel like I unintantionally wrote it more accurately than intended.
Original post by Tootles
Now that is interesting. I thought pale skin was resultant from being exposed to less heat/light over however-many generations, like an inherited tan or something. Does this mean that a change in diet promted lessened sensitivity to UV? Weird but wouldn't surprise me.

I have to say I'm partly interested in this because a book I wrote about three years ago had characters from Europe ~20kya in it, and I wrote them as having dark skin and hair, and being rather broad-shouldered and broad-faced. Now I feel like I unintantionally wrote it more accurately than intended.


The common explanation is pale skin allows for more vitamin D to be created (because our bodies make it through sunlight exposure), which is essential for healthy development and growth of babies & children. That's the usual explanation for why pale skin became more common in northern hemispheres where there was less sunlight, because it allows for more UV absorption. :dontknow:
Reply 8
Original post by Puddles the Monkey
The common explanation is pale skin allows for more vitamin D to be created (because our bodies make it through sunlight exposure), which is essential for healthy development and growth of babies & children. That's the usual explanation for why pale skin became more common in northern hemispheres where there was less sunlight, because it allows for more UV absorption. :dontknow:
Yeah I know melanin blocks UV, which is why skin tans (like a light-callus) when you've been in the sunlight for a long time. What you said just sounded like having less vitamin D in the diet possibly prompted the need for a higher sensitivity to UV and hence caused eventual lightening of skin. I could well be full of crap though :lol:
Original post by Tootles
Yeah I know melanin blocks UV, which is why skin tans (like a light-callus) when you've been in the sunlight for a long time. What you said just sounded like having less vitamin D in the diet possibly prompted the need for a higher sensitivity to UV and hence caused eventual lightening of skin. I could well be full of crap though :lol:


Yeah I think that's what they were saying on the radio - less varied agricltural diet meant people weren't getting as much vit D so paler skin became an advantage :holmes:
Original post by Puddles the Monkey
Yeah I think that's what they were saying on the radio - less varied agricltural diet meant people weren't getting as much vit D so paler skin became an advantage :holmes:
Thought that was what you meant. That's actually pretty impressive. Biology is really cool isn't it haha
The racists are going to feel this one.



Original post by Puddles the Monkey
Super interesting.

I think I was listening on the radio and they suggested that pale skin/vitamin D thing became more widespread when people started farming, because prior to that hunter gatherers were getting enough Vitamin D from fish and other food sources :beard:


Yeah that would make sense. Going to agriculture really ****ed us up. It was a massive trap that we are only just begining to be able to contemplate that it may have been worth it. Grain resulted in massive inequality and massive nutritional deficits. And yet we still maintain that we should be consuming a diet that was so harmful to us.

I wonder whether this means that black poeple living in the northern hemisphere should adapt thier diet accordingly.
(edited 6 years ago)
Reply 12
Original post by ChaoticButterfly
The racists are going to feel this one..

Why? I thought racism was about IQ not skin colour.
Poor Chedder Man was lactose intolerant
Original post by ChaoticButterfly
Yeah that would make sense. Going to agriculture really ****ed us up. It was a massive trap that we are only just begining to be able to contemplate that it may have been worth it. Grain resulted in massive inequality and massive nutritional deficits. And yet we still maintain that we should be consuming a diet that was so harmful to us.


It also allowed us to be super successful as a species (even if it does turn out to only be for a short time) :beard:
Original post by Puddles the Monkey
It also allowed us to be super successful as a species (even if it does turn out to only be for a short time) :beard:


Yes. On the back of slavery and opression. I would rather be a hunter gatherer than as a slave building a pharo's pyramid. Even right now, with all your healthcare and livign in a highly productive economy, you are talking to me using machines built by poeple who have to use threatened suicide as collective barganing strategy.
.

This is what a successfuls species looks like for millions of individuals. All being a "successful species" means as far as evolution is concerned is gene propogation.
d

This is what a hunter gatherer looks like. Thier population may not have exploded, but I;m willing to bet they are a lot happier than the vast majority of farmers ever were.

[video="youtube;xd0I1xAICOc"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd0I1xAICOc[/video]




Bacteria are super successful as speices. Meh.
(edited 6 years ago)
Original post by Tootles
Biology is really cool isn't it haha


Blows my mind.

The crayfish story is worth reading: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/05/science/mutant-crayfish-clones-europe.html

Someone accidentally bred a new kind of crayfish that can clone itself in a tank and now it's all over Europe like something out of sci-fi. :eek4:
Original post by ChaoticButterfly
The racists are going to feel this one.


They'll probably just deny it, same as they do with anything else that doesn't fit in with their worldview.
Original post by PQ
Poor Chedder Man was lactose intolerant


I wonder how he would feel about his descendents becoming famous for making cheese? :beard:
Original post by Puddles the Monkey
Blows my mind.

The crayfish story is worth reading: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/05/science/mutant-crayfish-clones-europe.html

Someone accidentally bred a new kind of crayfish that can clone itself in a tank and now it's all over Europe like something out of sci-fi. :eek4:
Shitfire that's freaky and awesome :nutcase:

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