Genes for light skin – 29,000 and 900,000 years old – Oct 2017

Genes for Skin Color Rebut Dated Notions of Race, Researchers Say New York Times


Clips

  • “The researchers pinpointed eight genetic variants in four narrow regions of the human genome that strongly influence pigmentation — some making skin darker, and others making it lighter.”
  • “These genes are shared across the globe, it turns out; one of them, for example, lightens skin in both Europeans and hunter-gatherers in Botswana. The gene variants were present in humanity’s distant ancestors, even before our species evolved in Africa 300,000 years ago”
  • “Studying 1,570 people in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Botswana, she and her colleagues discovered a set of genetic variants that account for 29 percent of the variation in skin color.”
  • “A variant for light skin — found in both Europeans and the San hunter-gatherers of Botswana — arose roughly 900,000 years ago, for example.”


Research article: Loci associated with skin pigmentation identified in African populations Science Oct 2017 $30

The same issue has: How Africans evolved a palette of skin tones also $30

See also VitaminDWiki

skin color map

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