[JLS]

Does to me too. It seems to me that blonds and fair skinned people become roughly a larger percentage of the European population the further north one goes. That might suggest that fair skin is a better adaptation in those climates than dark.

Natural selection is about what things work not what "choices" something makes. Polar bears are white because it works and brown polar bears did not survive as readily.

[annie laurie]

It seems to me that blonds and fair skinned people become roughly a larger percentage of the European population the further north one goes. That might suggest that fair skin is a better adaptation in those climates than dark.

Everything I've read in the past says you're correct. Melanin protects from sunlight (specifically UV rays) but also makes the body less efficient at producing Vitamin D.

Example here: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20041016/bob9.asp

[Domestic Church]

"Natural selection is about what things work not what "choices" something makes. Polar bears are white because it works and brown polar bears did not survive as readily. "

The artic fox, the artic wolf, the artic hare, the polar bear all survived because they could blend into the snow. Is it any surprise that the northern regions of Europe have more natural platinum blondes or that they tend to be woman? What is surprising is that the same didn't occur in Eastern Siberia.

[Clintonfatigued]

You make an interesting point, but there's something you're missing. In much of Asia, the terrain is mountainous and the weather is as cold as in Europe or even more so, yet the people still have dark hair & eyes.

[muawiyah]

Brown "polar bears" are called Grizzly bears. For the most part they drowned in the cold water. Polar bears have many more adaptations than the pigmentation of their fur.

[Coyoteman]

That might suggest that fair skin is a better adaptation in those climates than dark.

Light skin is an adaptation to production of vitamin D in the skin in lower-light conditions.

In intense sunlight dark skin is necessary to reduce the amount of UV in the skin (cancer), but the farther north a group migrated the lighter the skin had to be to provide the same amount of vitamin D.

Then there were those in the Mediterranean, with intense sun in the summer and more favorable winters, so they developed tanning ability to take advantage of both conditions.

The exception is the Arctic north; no amount of sunlight will provide the vitamin D you need, and you couldn't do much sunbathing anyway (frostbite you know). Their skin color reverts to a more average color.

Isn't adaptation fun? Course, it takes thousands of years.

[woofer]

Does to me too. It seems to me that blonds and fair skinned people become roughly a larger percentage of the European population the further north one goes.

That might suggest that fair skin is a better adaptation in those climates than dark.

Then how come there are no blonde Siberians, Eskimos, Aleuts or Inuits?

Why just in Europe?