http://news.sciencemag.org/archaeolo...ite-skin?rss=1

Interesting article about the genes that favored lighter complexions dating back only around about 8000 years ago. Some of the oldest traces of human activity date back to 20,000 years ago. Evolution is slow. But I just thought it was interesting how recent this aspect of it was, especially considering the oldest human remains date back to around 150-200,000 years ago. Even though this article is about Europe, the same phenomena likely applies to other races too.

Good to know.

That is really interesting.

I seem to recall reading a similar article over a year ago.
They said that light skin in parts of Asia was due to a different mutation than in Europe.


Edit: just noticed some of the comments on that article you linked to.
Some people really don't like the idea of being told that they might have recent dark skinned ancestors.

How much further we would be if that mutation hadn't ever happened..

Not even when the science is right in their faces.

Evolution unleashing racism on us

yeah I'm pretty sure my biology teacher told my class about this a few years ago.

So every white person has these 2 pale genes or you could have 1 and still be light?

smdnfkknajlfljnd

You wouldn't be thirsty for that white boy on your avi

Yeah, it's very unfortunate.

However, racism would still exist. The three main races of humans (genetically speaking) are the ones from Africa, the ones from Eurasia (caucasians) and the ones from East Asia, and there are many more differences between these, it's not just skin colour. It's due to the evolution that happened in the thousands of years these races were separated. It's also things like hair type (for example people from Africa have afro hair), susceptibility to diseases, average height, brain development/intelligence, hormone levels, facial features, and so on. If we all had the same colour skin it would help a lot, but racism would still exist without it, unfortunately.