[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.
"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.
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.
"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
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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
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
Thought that was what you meant. That's actually pretty impressive. Biology is really cool isn't it haha
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
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.
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)
It also allowed us to be super successful as a species (even if it does turn out to only be for a short time)
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.