Posted on 09/02/2009 12:47:20 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Humans come in a rainbow of hues, from dark chocolate browns to nearly translucent whites.
This full kaleidoscope of skin colors was a relatively recent evolutionary development, according to biologists, occuring alongside the migration of modern humans out of Africa between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago.
The consensus among scientists has always been that lower levels of vitamin D at higher latitudes — where the sun is less intense — caused the lightening effect when modern humans, who began darker-skinned, first migrated north.
But other factors might be at work, a new study suggests. From the varying effects of frostbite to the sexual preferences of early men, a host of theories have been reviewed.
Vitamin D plays an important role in bone growth and the body's natural protection against certain diseases, and the inability to absorb enough in areas of less-powerful sunlight would have decreased life expectancies in our African ancestors. The further north they trekked, the more vitamin D they needed and the lighter they got over the generations, due to natural selection.
This explanation accounts for the world's gradients of skin color traveling south to north, the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among African immigrants to higher latitudes, as well as the relatively darker skin of Canada's Inuit peoples, who have good levels of vitamin D despite living in the Arctic, due to their diet rich in oily fish.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
SLC24A5 (solute carrier family 24, member 5) is a gene that is thought to explain around 25-35% of the difference in skin color between Europeans and Africans. The most common allele in Europeans has a single nucleotide polymorphism resulting in the change from one amino acid to another in the resulting protein.
The European allele produces a protein that doesn't work as well within the system that fixes melanin in the skin. That is as obvious as my face in the mirror, and I know it like the back of my hand. ;)
They needed CPAs and all the Indians had IT controlled. Beside, who else but a white guy would say with a straight face, “There’s just the proper hint of oak in this chardonnay....and I’m guessing it’s French oak.”
That is not what I heard them call, it does start with an S though.
Yep. I’m sure they instead used the acronym for “Spanish People In Custody.”
I forget why I became white.
Seriously though, maybe the genome of some groups have adjusted to the need for lighter skin over the eons. That would be part of God's plan too.
Btw, your palm is on the front, or inside of your hand. The back of your hand is the part that tans, after all.
/just playing with ya, now. ;-)
The world needed lead guitarists.
Adjusted for the need by selective incorporation of a less functional allele.
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Because someone has to play lead guitar.
:’) It varies. And as long as I’m sayin’ so...
Meet The Black Brazilian Mother Who Has Three White Children
DailyMail(UK) | September 02, 2009
Posted on 09/02/2009 5:52:03 PM PDT by Steelfish
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2330876/posts
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· Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists · |
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White Europeans evolved only 5,500 years ago
The Sunday Times | August 30, 2009 | Jonathan Leake
Posted on 08/30/2009 10:40:35 AM PDT by decimon
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2328040/posts
...and yet...
The Mystery Behind the 5,000 Year Old Tarim Mummies
Environmental Graffiti | 31 Aug 2009 | EG
Posted on 08/31/2009 2:18:47 PM PDT by BGHater
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2328876/posts
In virtually all societies, the preference is for lighter skin. Ruling classes are virtually all lighter of skin tone than their subjects. In traditional society when a darker individual usurps the throne he marries his children to lighter skinned mates. In the most civilized of societies with the least race consciousness, among the upper classes the comment can be heard when offspring brings someone home to meet the folks, “Isn’t he/she a little dark?” It is not race preference but rather a bias for lighter skin within a culture. It is near universal, from Libreville to Oslo.
Why Did People Become White?
It’s Vampires, I tell ya.
None of it is. :’) It’s just luck of the draw, with some xenophobia and political oppression thrown in. :’) Thanks BL.
Athough the preference is true, the description is somewhat lacking. For example, among Indians, there is a preference for lighter skin, but there is a strong cultural bias against “white” skin. It probably has a lot to do with the racist caste system, but that’s just that.
Among Indians from the Subcontinent, and this is from anecdotal evidence alone, children seeking non-Indian partners is stigmatised, albeit, this may be an outdated view.
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