The Evolution of Human Skin Color

According to Darwin and its evolution theory biology has been challenged by environmental changes by the environment. Those adapted to these challenges left their genes successfully and made sure that their lineage will continue to exist. This is an obvious choice and nature can perform small to large sporadic experiments on the organisms and the results may be interesting from extinction to marked changes in species . Humans are no exception to biological evolution.

Ten years ago, an anthropologist Nina Jablonski was asked to give a lecture on human skin at the University of Western Australia. As a primate evolution expert, she decided to discuss the evolution of skin color, but when she read the literature about the subject she was frustrated. Some theories advocated before the 1970s are racist, but there is nothing convincing. White skin is reported to be more resistant to cold, but the group like Inuit is black and especially cold-resistant. Since the 1970s, when researchers were more aware of the controversy that these studies might cause, there was no research at all. "This is one thing that everyone has noticed," Jablonski said.

I do not have it anymore. Jablonski and her husband, GIS expert George Chaplin, developed the first comprehensive skin color theory. Their findings, published in the latest issue of the Journal of Human Evolution, show a strong, somewhat predictable correlation between skin color and overall sunlight intensity. But they also showed a deeper and more amazing work process: They said the color of the skin is mainly vitamin problems. Jablonski, currently the director of the Department of Anthropology at the California Academy of Sciences, initially assumes that our earliest ancestors like chimpanzees are our closest relatives. Early humans migrated from tropical rainforests to the prairies of East Africa 500 to 2 million years ago. As they enter Savanna, they not only need to cope with more exposure to the sun, but they also have to work harder to collect food.

At that time many colleagues thought the change in color of the skin was an uncontrollable problem. That theory is that the skin gets blackened to protect skin cancer under the tropical sun - the early human - recently lost fur covers -. However, Jablonski knows that skin cancer will almost always appear late in life when people are over the age of childbirth. Even if you prevent those occurrences, there is little or no evolutionary advantage. Her lecture in Australia prepared another scene. In a paper published by two American medical researchers in 1978, Jablonski found evidence that the blood concentration of the sun exposed to strong sunlight is low, it is an indispensable vitamin B. In other studies, we associate folate deficiency in pregnant women with various birth defects. She learned that folic acid is essential for sperm production in men