The evolution of dark skin is believed to have begun around 1.2 million years ago, in light-skinned early hominid species after they moved from the equatorial rainforest to the sunny savannas.
The genetic evidence suggests that black skin became the norm in Africa some 1.2 million years ago, around the time that early humans were colonizing the savanna and had lost most of their body hair.
Until recently, researchers assumed that after human ancestors shed most body hair, sometime before 2 million years ago, they quickly evolved dark skin for protection from skin cancer and other harmful effects of UV radiation.
From about 1.2 million years ago to less than 100,000 years ago, archaic humans, including archaic Homo sapiens, were dark-skinned.
Evidence still suggests that all modern humans are descended from an African population of Homo sapiens that spread out of Africa about 60,000 years ago but also shows that they interbred quite extensively with local archaic populations as they did so (Neanderthal and Denisovan genes are found in all living non-Africa ...
A new genetic study suggests all modern humans trace our ancestry to a single spot in southern Africa 200,000 years ago.
As populations migrated away from the tropics into areas of low UV radiation, they developed light skin pigmentation as an evolutionary selection acting against vitamin D depletion.
From his research, he's found that people from Senegal and the islands of Micronesia have some of the darkest skin tones in the world. That's typical in countries close the equator, where the dark pigment melanin protects against UV damage from the sun's rays.
Ancient DNA contains clues about complexion. An analysis of 50,000-year-old Neanderthal DNA suggests that at least some of the ancient hominids probably had pale skin and red hair.
The 15,000–20,000 years that the American Indians have been there is too short a time. Eskimos stopped along the way, but kept some of their dark skin colour because they ate Vitamin D-rich seafood. Their diet made completely white skin unnecessary for them to survive.
A study on the genomes of Anatolian Neolithic farmers in West Eurasia (6500–300 BC), who are probably the source population of the first European farmers, suggests that the light skin color has been evolved since at least 6500–4000 years ago [98].
As people moved to areas farther from the equator with lower UV levels, natural selection favored lighter skin which allowed UV rays to penetrate and produce essential vitamin D. The darker skin of peoples who lived closer to the equator was important in preventing folate deficiency.
Red hair wasn't inherited from Neanderthals at all. It now turns out they didn't even carry the gene for it!
From DNA recovered from the bones, researchers deduced that modern humans interbred with Neanderthals some 60,000 years ago, after leaving Africa. As a result, the genes of non-Africans today are 1 percent to 2 percent Neanderthal. People of African ancestry, it was thought, have little to no Neanderthal DNA.
Jan. 30, 2020, 11:31 a.m. After sequencing the Neanderthal genome, a team of Princeton researchers led by Joshua Akey discovered that all modern humans carry some Neanderthal ancestry in their DNA — including Africans, which was not previously known.
African and Indian skin had the highest total amount of melanin in the epidermis (t-test; P < 0.001), with no significant differ- ence between them. Amongst the remaining lighter groups, there was no significant difference in total epidermal melanin content.
Health experts advise everyone, regardless of skin color, to use sunscreen with an SPF of at least 30. Although dark-skinned people won't get sunburned as quickly, they will still burn and are still susceptible to sun-induced damage—such as sun spots and wrinkles—and cancer .
The most frequent skin color coded was white with pink undertones, which comprised 42.3% of the anatomical images. The second most prevalent color was pinkish brown, at 29.1%.
Homo sapiens, the first modern humans, evolved from their early hominid predecessors between 200,000 and 300,000 years ago. They developed a capacity for language about 50,000 years ago. The first modern humans began moving outside of Africa starting about 70,000-100,000 years ago.
Many scientists have believed that lighter skin gradually arose in Europeans starting around 40,000 years ago, soon after people left tropical Africa for Europe's higher latitudes.
Your skin gets its color from a pigment called melanin. Special cells in the skin make melanin. When these cells become damaged or unhealthy, it affects melanin production. Some pigmentation disorders affect just patches of skin.
A new genomic study has revealed that Aboriginal Australians are the oldest known civilization on Earth, with ancestries stretching back roughly 75,000 years.
Anatomically modern humans originated in Africa around 200 thousand years ago (ka)1,2,3,4. Although some of the oldest skeletal remains suggest an eastern African origin2, southern Africa is home to contemporary populations that represent the earliest branch of human genetic phylogeny5,6.
Modern humans originated in Africa within the past 200,000 years and evolved from their most likely recent common ancestor, Homo erectus, which means 'upright man' in Latin. Homo erectus is an extinct species of human that lived between 1.9 million and 135,000 years ago.
New DNA research has unexpectedly revealed that modern humans (Homo sapiens) mixed, mingled and mated with another archaic human species, the Denisovans, not once but twice—in two different regions of the ancient world.