2006-09-17 09:31:16 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Genealogy
My father and I are having a debate...he thinks people got dark skin because they were in the sun more and thats how they evolved. My mother thinks differently than that and I don't know what to think...I just want to prove someone wrong...lol! Thanks guys!
2006-09-17 09:33:26 · update #1
Melanin in the skin is genetically inherited. Mutations leading to lighter or darker skins are propagated in a group when others with the same mutations have kids and a larger group is created with that same mutation.
Many creatures have developed bodily mutations to protect them from the sun's rays and Melanin is one of them. Hair is, too. I think it interesting that Africans' natural hair form is the afro, which essentially protects the head from the intense sun. In contrast, Europeans who mutated straighter hair bred with each other to form large populations of straight-hairs that are not so well protected from the sun - but it's okay because they lived without the daily scorching heat.
2006-09-17 09:38:56 · answer #1 · answered by speakeasy 6 · 2⤊ 1⤋
People all around the world - Arabs, Negroes, American Indians, Indian Indians, South-east Asians - are darker if they live near the equator.
Evolution theory says those with more protection from the sun - tans built in at birth - would live longer and have more children than those without it, so, over the course of a thousand generations, dark-skinned people would inherit the hotter parts of the earth. That also explains why the gggg-great grandchildren of fair-skinned blond Dutch who were in South Africa in the 1600's are still fair-skinned and blond, and the children of African-Americans who live in Alaska are still dark. It takes a long time to evolve.
2006-09-17 14:49:15 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
Well,as u said ppl get their skin color bcoz some get exposed to more sunlight and therefore a pigment called melanin is formed and the concentration of melanin is different in ppl living in different zones of the earth, Like for example, dark ppl living in the African continent get their complexion bcoz they are more exposed to the sun. The sunlight can penetrate thru the skin if there is no melanin and destroy our organs. To prevent this melanin concentration is more in them. As for the ppl living in colder areas of the world, they get exposed to less sunlight and therefore they dont have much melanin and thus they have fair-complexions
2006-09-17 17:03:55 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Some people think the darker skin developed as an evolutionary protection against too much sun. This holds up with the evidence that fair skinned people in hot places (like Australia) get skin cancer much more than in cooler places.
The further north you go, the paler people seem to get...at places with low light in winter, you would have to let in the maximum sunlight to get enough vitamin D to be healthy.
That's my two cents!
2006-09-17 09:40:07 · answer #4 · answered by jarm 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Melanign. But we get our skin color from our genes which actually comes from our forefathers.
2006-09-17 09:38:09 · answer #5 · answered by anks 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Your Dad's right... amount of sun (more the climate than the sun, per say).
.
2006-09-17 15:16:29 · answer #6 · answered by mama_bears_den 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
pigment.
from the sun.
2006-09-17 09:33:59 · answer #7 · answered by sweets 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋
GOD SAID?????
2006-09-18 14:26:40 · answer #8 · answered by Stephanie D 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋