which was first .. black or white?

Question

I mean.. did all humans start off as black and then some change of evolved into made some of us gradually get lighter.... or did we start off as white and then gradually get darker...?

Or was there both black and white at the beginning?

And why different skin colours in different countries?? this has to be something to do with the way we have evolved.. like organisms growing a different way in different places..different temperatures...?

Have they ever figured this out?

i'm aware some of that doesn't make sense (sorry)

i don't have yahoo messenger....... sorry!

Answer 1

"once you turn black u can't turn back" is how the saying goes. Also take note that you gradually turn lighter after a while after you go suntanning. hmm. And it is because how closer you are from the equator as people who lived closer to the equator for a long time evolved with darker colours

Answer 2

It depends on how much hair the early hominids had at the time of the first migration out of Africa. If they were still hairy, like the other apes, then their skin would have been pale, possibly with darker faces. If they had already lost most of their body hair then they would have needed to be dark skinned.
Skin colour relates to the melanocyte activity, darker skin gives greater protection from Sun damage, but decreases vitamin D absorption. In hotter climates with more sunlight, darker skin is a selective advantage due to decreased skin damage and skin cancer, in cooler climates it is a disadvantage due to decreased vitamin D conversion by sunlight, so lighter skin is an advantage. This is best seen in places like India, where the northern Indians are lighter than the southern Indians and Sri Lankans. The same gradation is seen in Australian Aborigines, those from the north are darker than those from the south of Australia, because they are further from the equator.
It is the radiation levels, not the temperature, which is the driving selective pressure here.

Answer 3

I think the way I understand it is that......Life started in Africa over many many years some groups travled togther to different parts of the land. And back in there time the continents were much closer to each other. So say that a group of many light skinned people left and settled somewhere far away and they had children and after awhile they just became more and more light skinned. So i do think we all started out with darker skin.

Answer 4

Actually you have asked a very good thought provoking question..we did studies this when I was in school.skin color is due to pigment and the more sun in the country the darker the skin of that countries native population hence Africa+sun=darker skin color to shield the body from burn
arctic say Alaska+no sun=very pale skin color so the body may absorb the warmth of the sun.
As to which came first I believe it is ancient Egyptians but God only knows for shure

Answer 5

yeah..it has been figured out...

"The evolution of the different skin tones is thought to have occurred as follows: the haired ancestors of humans, like modern great apes, had light skin under their hair. Once the hair was lost, they evolved dark skin, needed to prevent low folate levels since they lived in sun-rich Africa. (The skin cancer connection is probably of secondary importance, since skin cancer usually kills only after the reproductive age and therefore does not exert much evolutionary pressure.) When humans migrated to less sun-intensive regions in the north, low vitamin D3 levels became a problem and light skin color re-emerged".

the skin colors depend on the climatic condition of a region at a particular time

Answer 6

Color is determined by climate, not nation...Racial categories are made up be humans....If you walked from the southern tip of Africa all the way to northern Europe all the way to eastern Asia, the changes in skin tone would be so gradual you would hardly notice...There would be no point where you'd say "They were black in the last town, but now they're white."

As far as archeology is concerned, the oldest human remains have been found in Africa, in and around Kenya...

Answer 7

I really don't like this topic but here goes.We have different complections because of climate as that dude said people living closer to the equator will have darker complections cuz the son is directly over head there for example people in the Caribbean Jamaica "u should come visit us.

Answer 8

Lisa, from what i have learned from "Discovery Channel" might help you.all civilazation originated in Africa, so it is assumed that mankind was black...as they migrated to other countries, they evolved slowly.. and the reason for difference in skin colors is a natural reaction to climate.. for instance, white people have larger noses to warm the cold frigid air as they inhale.. black people have different nostrils because they breath tropical warm air that does not need to be warmed as it is inhaled..also different hair can cool or warm the human body and head.. this is not a joke answer.

Answer 9

Oh my god, I guess you dont go to school. There are different skin colors in different countries because of temperature etc. Yes they have figured all of this out.

Answer 10

Black, Australipithicus as well as many other early hominids were undisputedly black and there was a report years ago that stated proof that Eve was black.