what is the evolutionary significance of red hair?

Answer 1

My husband has red hair, he looks like a Neanderthal , smells like a Neanderthal, acts like a Neanderthal, roots like a Neanderthal, but he is smarter than George W Bush, I'm not sure what this means, any ideas?????

Answer 2

It is a recessive gene, which is sex linked. More specifically it is carried on the X gene and not the Y gene.

For males the trait of red hair is inherited from their mother. Their father may pass them some red hair gene, but it is not significant due to the recessive nature of the gene.

Women can be carriers of the gene and show little or no sign of the trait. Women with the gene may have a dominant other gene which may mean that the trait (or traits such as freckles), are not displayed.

A woman with red hair has to inherit the gene from both her father and her mother (otherwise she will not be a true red head). Ultimately, this means her father has to be a red head, or sandy haired person. (strawberry blondes are a mutant of the true red head gene)

Answer 3

Red hair shows how enviroment affects genes. As its derived from northern countries scandanavia with lack of light and prevents rickets. so natural selection made more peeps have red hair. No really significance to be honest its just a gene that appeared and has been passed on .

Answer 4

Some one with naturally red hair are classed as being 'hot headed',
'firey temper'.
But.. I have the bright fire-engine red dyed hair. (Its not all red, just underneath + blonde on top)
I had it done because i was ready for a big change.

Answer 5

I'm a reddish haired woman who was taught in a history class in high school that red heads are dying out, soon there will only be dark through light hair, but no red heads?

Interestingly enough, one of my four children has flame red hair, redder than his two red haired grandfathers. :) So he will pass that on, I bet.

Answer 6

Zero. There are many variations in hair colorings and markings on most mammals. Since there is only one breed of human, red hair provides no special advantage.

Answer 7

In the UK red hair is generally associated with people of Celtic descent, i.e Wales, Scotland and Ireland. It is believed the people of Scotland came from 5 different ethnic groups who occupied or invaded northern Britain in the dark ages. In all of recorded history, red haired people have never been mentioned as a group except by the Romans. The 'Picts' were among the foes whom the Romans fought and were described as having red hair and 'large limbs' by Roman historian Tacitus. Modern historians with the help of anthropologists have placed red hair as a unique characteristic belonging to the Picts, who were characteristic to what is now regarded as Scottish.

As far as the world wide distribution of red hair is concerned, it would be fair to say that the majority may well have descended from this North-Western European region, although as with all variations between people, mutations in genes can occur and be maintained in any population provided there is no detrimentus effect to the populations growth.

As for the reasons for red hair, it's not easy to see any immediate selective advantage in terms of evolution. Here is some information of the genetics behind red-hair and this seems to provide a clue.

Variation in both skin and hair pigmentation is due to varied amounts of the chemicals eumelanin (brown/black melanins) and phaeomelanin (red/yellow melanins) produced by melanocytes ("colour-cells").

The melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R) is a regulator of eu- and phaeomelanin production in the melanocytes and mutations in this gene are known to cause coat colour changes in many mammals. Studies on Irish and Dutch populations have significantly linked variations in the MC1R gene to red hair.

Also, so called 'loss-of-function' mutations in the human MC1R gene are known to be common and have recently been shown to be associated with red hair. One other interesting point is that recent work has shown that some variants on the MC1R gene may be preferentially associated with hair colour rather than
skin type.

Because the primary function of melanins is thought to be for both 'photoprotection' and 'photosensitising` (eu- and phaeomelanins respectively), this gives reason to suppose that MC1R variants (most red heads) are a risk factor, possibly independant of skin type, for melanoma susceptibility.

Why would mutations occur if such variations in MC1R originally arose in areas of Northern Europe? Maybe it was because there was no selection against such mutations occuring in that region of the world. Due to the poor quality of weather in this area of the world, any mutations in MC1R would hold no relevance as the UV-levels would be significantly low enough to cause no damage despite decreased melatonin protection.

Unfortunately this assumes that MC1R mutations occuring in 'hot climates' would result in high mortality rates occuring before age of parenthood which is probably unlikely. Other than that, there is ostensibly no other reason to suggest why red hair originated in North West Europe other than by random chance.

Answer 8

Red heads can't go out in the sun, and on bumpy road surfaces they are more likely to bounce off the seats on the back of the bus, that's why they sit near the front, take a look next time your on a bus.

Answer 9

It doesn't necessarily have any significance. It could simply be linked with another beneficial trait.
As others have suggested, this could be something to do with skin tone - lighter skin tones are more beneficial in environments with lower sunlight exposure, as it facilitates Vitamin D production.

Answer 10

Evidently woman with red hair are more susceptible to pain than woman with other hair colours!(natural colours that is).