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Dark Skinned Europeans

The hunter gatherers of Europe 8000 years ago had dark skin (and blue eyes), so how did they get enough vitamin D, living as they did in a cold, dark climate? The answer seems to be that they got their vitamin D from a diet consisting mainly of meat and fish. As a result, there was no evolutionary pressure to evolve lighter skin. By contrast, the farmers of Anatolia had a nearly vegetarian diet, and so, despite living in a climate both warmer and brighter than Europe, evolved light skin. When these farmers moved to Europe, they displaced and largely replaced the indigenous HG and their light skin took over Europe.

Several mutations were required to produce lighter skin, but the paler Anatolians in whom these genes emerged were healthier, lived longer, and had more children. The color of their skin changed along with the shift toward farming. Gradually this evolutionary development spread across the whole of Europe. The farther north we look, the paler the skin. Among hunter-gatherers, on the other hand, this selection pressure did not exist.

Krause, Johannes; Trappe, Thomas. A Short History of Humanity (p. 74). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Profile photo for Edward Measure
Know nothin' 'bout Chemistry, so don't ask.
Retired Physicist, current Astrophysics Student,
Ph.D. in Physics, Arizona State UniversityGraduated 1977
Lives in Las Cruces, NM
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