How Europeans evolved white skin

[tical]

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI—Most of us think of Europe as the ancestral home of white people. But a new study shows that pale skin, as well as other traits such as tallness and the ability to digest milk as adults, arrived in most of the continent relatively recently. The work, presented here last week at the 84th annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, offers dramatic evidence of recent evolution in Europe and shows that most modern Europeans don’t look much like those of 8000 years ago.

The origins of Europeans have come into sharp focus in the past year as researchers have sequenced the genomes of ancient populations, rather than only a few individuals. By comparing key parts of the DNA across the genomes of 83 ancient individuals from archaeological sites throughout Europe, the international team of researchers reported earlier this year that Europeans today are a mix of the blending of at least three ancient populations of hunter-gatherers and farmers who moved into Europe in separate migrations over the past 8000 years. The study revealed that a massive migration of Yamnaya herders from the steppes north of the Black Sea may have brought Indo-European languages to Europe about 4500 years ago.

Now, a new study from the same team drills down further into that remarkable data to search for genes that were under strong natural selection—including traits so favorable that they spread rapidly throughout Europe in the past 8000 years. By comparing the ancient European genomes with those of recent ones from the 1000 Genomes Project, population geneticist Iain Mathieson, a postdoc in the Harvard University lab of population geneticist David Reich, found five genes associated with changes in diet and skin pigmentation that underwent strong natural selection.

When it comes to skin color, the team found a patchwork of evolution in different places, and three separate genes that produce light skin, telling a complex story for how European’s skin evolved to be much lighter during the past 8000 years. The modern humans who came out of Africa to originally settle Europe about 40,000 years are presumed to have had dark skin, which is advantageous in sunny latitudes. And the new data confirm that about 8500 years ago, early hunter-gatherers in Spain, Luxembourg, and Hungary also had darker skin: They lacked versions of two genes—SLC24A5 and SLC45A2—that lead to depigmentation and, therefore, pale skin in Europeans today.

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http://news.sciencemag.org/archaeology/2015/04/how-europeans-evolved-white-skin

 

[Mt Airy Groove]

The original European

 

[WhenTheGoingGetsTtuff]

Unh huh.

 

[Mrfreddygoodbud]

get the fuck outta here with this

cac propaganda,

EVOLVE how the fuck is your skin EVOLVING,

when its recessive...

how the fuck is your pale skin evolving when

it literally cannot exist on a solar planet..


these cacs will just say any stupid shit,

and put big words behind it, to make it

sound legit...

white pale skin on a solar planet is the

exact opposite of evolving!!!!!

#fohwtbs

 

[WhenTheGoingGetsTtuff]

get the fuck outta here with this

cac propaganda,

EVOLVE how the fuck is your skin EVOLVING,

when its recessive...

how the fuck is your pale skin evolving when

it literally cannot exist on a solar planet..


these cacs will just say any stupid shit,

and put big words behind it, to make it

sound legit...

white pale skin on a solar planet is the

exact opposite of evolving!!!!!

#fohwtbs

You didn't read the article.

 

[code_pirahna]

get the fuck outta here with this

cac propaganda,

EVOLVE how the fuck is your skin EVOLVING,

when its recessive...

how the fuck is your pale skin evolving when

it literally cannot exist on a solar planet..


these cacs will just say any stupid shit,

and put big words behind it, to make it

sound legit...

white pale skin on a solar planet is the

exact opposite of evolving!!!!!

#fohwtbs

skin tone is not a dominant or recessive trait cause its determined with a multitude of genes (300 +).....you can t dominant and recessive 300 plus genes......its also a bullshit concept to call it white or black.....


people are shades based upon melanin content....period

ETA: White people tan in the sun and get a darker "shade" because the sun stimulates melanin production in them.