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People with lighter colour skin originate from ONE particular anchestor

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  • 04-01-2014 1:17pm
    #1
    JuliusCaesar
    Registered Users Posts: 4,882 ✭✭✭


    From a study reported here (link to original study on that page):
    All instances of a gene mutation that contributes to light skin color in Europeans came from the same chromosome of one person who most likely lived at least 10,000 years ago, according to researchers.

    I'm not sure I understand this entirely. Is he saying that Europeans have one particular ancestor, and that East Asians have a different reason for their lighter skin?
    “The coincidence of this interesting form of evidence of shared ancestry of East Asians with Europeans, within this tiny chromosomal region, is exciting,” Cheng says. “The combining of segments occurred after the ancestors of East Asians and Europeans split geographically more than 50,000 years ago; the A111T mutation occurred afterward.”


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    #2
    Wibbs
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,161 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    Well AFAIR it's been long known that Asians paler skin is of a different type and involves different genes going on and that the adaptations occurred after Europeans and Asians "split" from the Middle East. It doesn't look like we got the pale genes from Neandertals anyway as the bulk of our interbreeding with them happened in the Middle East before the split. Or maybe not? Maybe the Asian paleness is Neandertal(or other) in origin and the Euro paleness is a purely internal mutation. Then again what do we truly know of the paleness genetics of Neandertals throughout their range, never mind Denisovian folks.

    I'm not so sure about it being down to just one person notion though. A "Honkey Eve" :D. If it was it's spread remarkably quickly.

    I found this interesting;
    Europeans have 10 to 20 times more instances of melanoma than Africans. However, despite also having lighter skin, East Asians have the same melanoma rates as Africans. Really didn't expect that at all.

    Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.



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    #3
    JuliusCaesar
    Registered Users Posts: 4,882 ✭✭✭JuliusCaesar


    Wibbs wrote: »
    I'm not so sure about it being down to just one person notion though. A "Honkey Eve" :D. If it was it's spread remarkably quickly.

    Thanks.

    I guess they explained that by saying it was an adaptive mutation in the metabolism of Vit D?


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