Is there a genetic reason blacks have big lips?

Question

Most things on our body are that way they are due to evolution so has anyone theorized about this?

Yes but what was the reason for this?

What use did this bring about?

Your sorta getting the point matthew.

Ok some white people have big lips but as I said evoltion must have made people this way for a reason.

Are so many of you neutered by political correctness that you cant answer a question without thinking about racism?

Answer 1

It probably has to do with the climate. It may be that the reason Northern Europeans and Northern Asians have thinner lips is because of their need to survive winters. It's not only the Africans that have full lips but many other groups that live in warm climates like Mediterranean people or Southern Asians and even the Aborigines in Australia. On a side note, I think that your question is a good one - I hadn't thought of it before and I am interested in why people look the way they do - it's interesting.

Answer 2

I'm white and I have big lips. This is a stupid question. You could start asking why Oriental people have thin eyes or why some white people have ginger hair etc. and you will never get an answer. There isn't an evolutionary benefit to every single little thing about us, some of it is just for diversity so that we don't all look the same.

Answer 3

I think your question should be, why do Caucasians have small lips? Don't forget that humans originated in Africa. This is similar to the case of skin color, Europeans lost melanin from their skin to increase their sunlight absorption for Vitamin D metabolism. And several mutations occured as well that made it advantageous to have lactose tolerance from drinking milk in their diet. Along these lines then I think Caucasians developed smaller lips because of the weather, it made big lips a detriment because they kept getting chapped and infected in the bitter cold of the Northern winters. Strangely, in today's society, plumped-up lips with collagen injections is somehow attractive (witness Angelina Jolie.)

Answer 4

I have no idea but wanna say well done you got all the nuts out the wood work there is nothing racist in your question and i think it was a good one but everyone seems to of taken it as a racist question what is wrong with them i ask????? some people are sooooo quick to judge others

Answer 5

Being the human race started in Africa, I believe your question, although maybe not racist, is quite backwards. How did it come about that you think black people came to evolve from what...white people and thus changed? The question is, what is the genetic reason that white people developed thin lips.

Answer 6

I haven't a clue although I've seen a couple of good answers (climate differences etc) I just wanted to say I think it's a good and valid question and why oh why do people take offence at the simplest things!!?

Answer 7

The first race was black and through evolution evolved other races. Our (white) is the last one in evolution. That I read in National Geographic...

Answer 8

I would imagine bigger lips are more compatible with warmer climates - maybe lose more heat that way? And white people evolved thin lips because less surface area to get stuck on frozen things? Dunno, either way one day we'll all be 'grey' - no black, no white. Which will be rather dull, indeed. Ah well...

Answer 9

I believe yes because the trait is prominent among the black ones and i think it is a result of human adaptation to the dominating climate in Africa, where the black people had originated.

Answer 10

You're obviously trying to be cute. NOT!
Common sense tells me that the natural tone of skin on this
world is brown.
Blacks probably came from a planet where the sun was very
harsh, HOT! So thier bodies adapted to that.
Being white, I feel we came from an Ice planet. Where the
sky was constantly overcast, GRAY, and there was little sun.