Posted on 01/27/2014 8:44:03 AM PST by Theoria
The headlines about this individual having dark skin are well founded, like the Luxembourg hunter-gatherer the sample has ancestral “non-European” copies of most of the major loci which are known to have large effect sizes (SLC24A5, which is now fixed in Europeans, SLC45A2, which is present at frequencies north of 80% in most of Europe, and KITLG, a lower frequency variant known to have a major impact on skin and hair). Additionally, this individual is related to the Ma’lta individual, just like the Swedish hunter-gatherers, but unlike the Luxembourg male (which did predate the Spanish samples by 1,000 years). Lots of functional stuff is in this paper too. Seems like immune adaptations aren’t just a function of agriculture.
One thing I want to note is that I’m not sure how much of the shift toward Finns of the Swedish and Spanish hunter-gatherers is due to Paleolithic European ancestry, vs. admixture with “eastern” elements. Since the Finns seem to have more recent East Asian ancestry excess paleo-Siberian in the Mesolithic samples may shift them in the same direction. The eastward since of the La Brana individuals is really obvious in the world wide PCA, they are farther toward East Asians than any other modern Europeans.
Citation: Nature (2014) doi:10.1038/nature12960
Derived immune and ancestral pigmentation alleles in a 7,000-year-old Mesolithic European:
Ancient genomic sequences have started to reveal the origin and the demographic impact of farmers from the Neolithic period spreading into Europe…The adoption of farming, stock breeding and sedentary societies during the Neolithic may have resulted in adaptive changes in genes associated with immunity and diet4. However, the limited data available from earlier hunter-gatherers preclude an understanding of the selective processes associated with this crucial transition to agriculture in recent human evolution. Here we sequence an approximately 7,000-year-old Mesolithic skeleton discovered at the La Braña-Arintero site in León, Spain, to retrieve a complete pre-agricultural European human genome. Analysis of this genome in the context of other ancient samples suggests the existence of a common ancient genomic signature across western and central Eurasia from the Upper Paleolithic to the Mesolithic. The La Braña individual carries ancestral alleles in several skin pigmentation genes, suggesting that the light skin of modern Europeans was not yet ubiquitous in Mesolithic times. Moreover, we provide evidence that a significant number of derived, putatively adaptive variants associated with pathogen resistance in modern Europeans were already present in this hunter-gatherer.
Interesting that these variations in coloring were present so long ago in what is now Spain-I always assumed all that happened after the Romans came to Iberia with their soldiers and slaves from all over the empire and stirred the melting pot more.
My ancestors who came to the new world were mostly Basques from the Pyrenees area of Spain-of course many of them mated with native Americans along the way from what is now Mexico to what is now Texas in the 17th-18th centuries.
Even so, most of us are still light-to-medium olive in color-some of us are darker, but not many. Green and blue eyes, red hair and even dark blonde hair are not uncommon no matter how olive skinned we are. That also supports the theory that some native Americans were descendants of those who had come to the “new world” from that area of Europe far back in antiquity. The distribution of various native American language groups from Canada to S. America certainly supports that theory, as well.
Given that people can tan from sun and chemicals, it's fairly irrelevant to even use uniquely to define possible clan association.
worth waiting for!
So? Many of those born and living today in the Mediterranean countries and north africa have darker skin and are still genetic caucasions. Just says that when modern man walked out of africa and left the stupid behind; the further they walked north, the less they relied on melanin to protect their skin; their bodies adapted to their climatic conditions.
That’s who I was trying to thing of!! Yes, the one in the middle.
Did not know Nelly Furtado was a European Hunter-Gatherer.
Yup.
He was holding a sign at the underpass bridge by my house.
It's always been hard for me to believe that humans spent thousands of years, thinking and thinking, before they finally realized that wood could float.
Is that one photoshopped, too?
They walked across on the ice during the last Ice Age.
These people have European DNA:
Bye, Bye Beringia (8,000 Year Old Site In Florida)
"At Windover, more ancient human remains were discovered than the total of all others found previously in the New World, and they were the oldest."
Who knows?
Works for Vanessa.
Pic, Please!
Sorry, he’s hapily married! :-)
As I am. Just curious about the ‘blue eys, dark skin’. He is cacausian?
Years ago, I read an article postulating travel by boat along the southern edge of the northern ice cap, from Europe to North America. It suggested that hunters of seals and other marine prey could have been caught in a storm and, trapped by the ocean currents, left no choice but to continue westward, thus discovering America. However, after the bad weather had ended, by following eastward along the ice and porting across the ice when necessary, two-way travel could be possible.
I believe that man noticed that things floated not too long after there was such a thing as a man, and that boat technologies were developed not too long afterward. The self-evident (to me) advantages, while terrifying to a landsman, wouldn't terrify everyone.
Thanks for the links; I'll check them out.
My concern is this is based on ONE individual. I think they would need MORE samples to confirm their allegations or it becomes just another politically correct generated philosophy.
There are LOTS of people who live on a grain diet and they don’t have lighter skin.
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