Posted on 02/06/2018 11:31:05 PM PST by blam
The first modern Britons, who lived about 10,000 years ago, had “dark to black” skin, a groundbreaking DNA analysis of Britain’s oldest complete skeleton has revealed.
The fossil, known as Cheddar Man, was unearthed more than a century ago in Gough’s Cave in Somerset. Intense speculation has built up around Cheddar Man’s origins and appearance because he lived shortly after the first settlers crossed from continental Europe to Britain at the end of the last ice age. People of white British ancestry alive today are descendants of this population.
It was initially assumed that Cheddar Man had pale skin and fair hair, but his DNA paints a different picture, strongly suggesting he had blue eyes, a very dark brown to black complexion and dark curly hair.
The discovery shows that the genes for lighter skin became widespread in European populations far later than originally thought – and that skin colour was not always a proxy for geographic origin in the way it is often seen to be today.
Tom Booth, an archaeologist at the Natural History Museum who worked on the project, said: “It really shows up that these imaginary racial categories that we have are really very modern constructions, or very recent constructions, that really are not applicable to the past at all.”
Yoan Diekmann, a computational biologist at University College London and another member of the project’s team, agreed, saying the connection often drawn between Britishness and whiteness was “not an immutable truth. It has always changed and will change”.
The findings were revealed ahead of a Channel 4 documentary, which tracked the ancient DNA project at the Natural History Museum in London as well as creating a new forensic reconstruction of Cheddar Man’s head.
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Based on one skeleton.....from the story
Somerset has a long coastal area. Light skin was a favorable mutation which made it more possible to form Vitamin D on the skin and absorb it. Vitamin D deficiency resulted in poor pelvic structure and difficulty with childbearing. One possible reason for gentlemen preferring blonds. Living along the coast the population could get plenty of Vitamin D from eating fish. Cod liver oil anyone? People living inland, especially in Europe may have mutated light skin early than populations living near the coasts.
My Scots ancestry husband had very bright light blue eyes, red hair, and sun sensitive skin. Given his build and extensive body hair, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had more than 4% Neanderthal genes. I would not be surprised if Neanderthals, many of whom lived far inland mutated light skin earlier than some other groups.
“The discovery shows that the genes for lighter skin became widespread in European populations far later than originally thought”
I should have included this quote in my previous comment. So they are basing their conclusions about how widespread light skin was in European populations based on one sample on an island? Great scientific reasoning. Not!
And. I. Don’t. Care.
:D
I’m not a deer who drinks coffee so you’re off the hook.
My grandfather was Welsh and not particularly swarthy. I wonder if some of this swarthiness might be similar to the “black Irish” who have blood from men rescued from the sinking Spanish Armada who married good Irish Catholic girls. The Welsh were not that fond of the English, and may also have rescued Spanish sailors. In fact, the name Williams, common to the Welsh, is a contraction of “William’s man” as the Welsh welcomed William the Conqueror as he conquered the Britons.
On the internet, nobody knows you’re really a deer holding a coffee mug...
*Facepalm*
Yeah, one hour left in my work shift.
Your secret is safe with me.
I’m not sure “swarthy” is the right term.
I and my Welsh-esque cousins are not “swarthy”.
We do, however, have a golden cast to our skin tone and we don’t “tan brown” like normal people.
We just become a darker version of the usual gold, no matter how much sun we get.
Though we can’t accomplish a “great tan” like paler people, we never burn, either.
I’m jealous.
I burn in the sun like a vampire and have to be careful of how long I am in the sun.
Good DNA list. Thank you.
I ride all summer in the blazing sun and don’t even get a “farmer tan”.
When I was teenager, I used to start “laying out” in March, trying to get a beach tan in time for summer.
Pointless.
I only got freckles and even they were just a darker gold.
Maybe he was a slave whose mother had been mated with by a lighter colored owner, not unlike what happened with our slaves. Many “blacks” are much lighter than black Africans and are actually mixed race.
That “mess with racists” article turned out to be one of those admitted fake news sources (as opposed to the fake news sources who won’t admit it).
I waited years to take my DNA test, because I had this fear I’d turn out to be related to the pastrami sandwich I’d had for lunch.
Skin color and morphological characteristics are "imaginary"?
3D scanning and 3D printing play pivotal role in facial reconstruction of the Cheddar Man
It shows that skin color is an environmental variable.
Other than as a quick visual marker, skin color is the least important thing about race.
Oh man...wish I could afford that.
:\
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