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Theory -

For a very long time, scientists believed humans first settled in Europe around 45,000 years ago and their skin quickly adapted to the reduced amount of sunlight.

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Theory -

Lighter skin was an adaptation that allowed more ultraviolet light to penetrate the skin and therefore increase the production of vitamin D. But did early Europeans really have lighter skin? Well, according to a new study of ancient DNA, the answer is: not for a very long time.

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New study -

A new study led by Guido Barbujani of the University of Ferrara in Italy looked at the genomes of 348 individuals who lived between 1,700 and 45,000 years ago.

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Findings -

The study found that the majority of the individuals had dark skin, including Europeans as recently as 3,000 years ago.

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Findings -

According to the study, 63% of ancient Europeans had dark skin. The study also concluded that only 8% had pale skin. The others were somewhere in between.

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Method -

The findings were based on DNA obtained from teeth and bones along with advanced forensic methods that use genetic markers to predict skin, eye, and hair color.

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Method -

The researchers used an advanced probabilistic approach to calculate pigmentation traits from ancient DNA, which is typically fragmented and degraded.

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Method -

They applied this method to two ancient genomes with high coverage: Ust'-Ishim, a 45,000-year-old individual from Siberia, and SF12, a 9,000-year-old individual from Sweden. The technique accurately predicted pigmentation traits, even with minimal genetic information.

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Recent adaptation -

Taking into account how long Europe has been inhabited, fair skin is a pretty recent adaptation.

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Africa -

There are a few theories as to why humans developed different skin tones, but the topic is still up for debate. For instance, the dark skin of early humans in Africa was likely to protect them from the strong ultraviolet (UV) radiation.

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Migration -

As humans migrated into Asia and Europe, a lighter skin tone became advantageous for the body to produce vitamin D. This adaptation however is still a bit of a gray area in evolutionary theory.

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Dark skin -

This transition took quite a long time. So much so that during the Copper and Iron Ages, circa 5,000 to 3,000 years ago, half of the individuals analyzed were still found to have had darker skin tones.

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Vitamin D -

While most vitamin D is produced as a result of sunlight exposure, it's also possible to obtain some through diet.

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Vitamin D -

Paleobiologist Nina Jablonski, an anthropologist at Pennsylvania State University, says that "Most hunter-gatherers apparently got enough vitamin D from food in the past."

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Lighter skin -

The first signs of lighter pigmentation date back to the Mesolithic Age, around 14,000 to 4,000 years ago.

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Lighter skin -

This lighter pigmentation was identified in individuals in Sweden and France. They also had blue eyes.

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Less dark-skinned individuals -

The number of dark-skinned individuals in Europe then dropped to about half by the Bronze Age, around 7,000 to 3,000 years ago.

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Lighter skin -

Light skin tones in Europe only became predominant around the Iron Age, or 3,000 to 1,700 years ago.

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Key event -

The migration of Neolithic farmers from Anatolia (Asia Minor, including present-day Turkey) around 10,000 years ago is believed to be responsible for carrying genes for lighter skin to Europe.

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New farmers -

This helped them thrive in European areas where the sun is more scarce. Their genes eventually spread over a long period of time.

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The process was slow and not straightforward -

Local migration and genetic admixture processes played a significant role in how skin color evolved in Europe. In certain areas, dark skin remained prevalent for thousands of years longer than in other regions.

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Lighter eyes came before lighter skin -

Light eyes actually became more frequent before lighter skin, peaking during the Mesolithic.

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Hair color -

Dark hair dominated most of prehistory. It was not until the Neolithic and Bronze Age that blonde and red hair began to appear.

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Neanderthals -

Neanderthals and humans shared many years coexisting. Interestingly, many had lighter skin than humans.

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Neanderthals -

Although both species are inbred, genetic evidence says that lighter skin genes were not inherited from Neanderthals.

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Ötzi -

Ötzi the Iceman, the ancient glacier mummy found in the Alps who lived 5,300 years ago, had dark skin.

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Ötzi’s skin color -

For reference, Ötzi’s skin was darker than that of modern South Europeans but lighter than modern Sub-Saharan Africans.

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Ötzi’s skin color -

“It’s the darkest skin tone that has been recorded in contemporary European individuals,” said anthropologist Albert Zink, who led a 2023 study on Ötzi.

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Cheddar Man -

Before the Iceman, there was the Cheddar Man, discovered in Britain. Back in 2018, scientists sequenced the DNA extracted from this 10,000-year-old male.

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Cheddar Man -

The Cheddar Man was Britain’s oldest complete skeleton. The DNA analysis revealed that he too had dark-brown skin. However, unlike the Iceman, he had blue eyes.

Sources: (ZME Science) (The Jerusalem Post)

See also: When did humans become human?

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