Mar 14, 2025 10:45 PM
Most ancient Europeans had dark skin, eyes and hair up until 3,000 years ago, new research finds
https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/...arch-finds
EXCERPTS: Most prehistoric Europeans had dark skin, hair and eyes well into the Iron Age, about 3,000 years ago, new research finds.
Scientists found that the genes that cause lighter skin, hair and eyes emerged among early Europeans only about 14,000 years ago, during the late stages of the Paleolithic period — also known as the "Old Stone Age." But these light features were only sporadic until relatively recently, said study senior author Silvia Ghirotto, a geneticist at the University of Ferrara in Italy.
Lighter skin may have carried an evolutionary advantage for Europeans because it enabled people to synthesize more vitamin D — needed for healthy bones, teeth and muscles — in Europe's weaker sunlight. But lighter eye color — blue or green, for example — does not seem to have had major evolutionary advantages, and so its emergence may have been driven by chance or sexual selection, Ghirotto told Live Science in an email.
[...] The genetic basis for lighter skin seems to have emerged in Sweden at about the same time as lighter eyes, but initially it remained relatively rare, Ghirotto said. The researchers also reported a statistical "spike" in the incidence of light eye color at this time, which suggested that blue or green eyes were more prevalent at that time than earlier or later.
Carles Lalueza Fox, a palaeogeneticist at Barcelona's Institute of Evolutionary Biology, is an expert on early European pigmentation but was not involved in the latest study. It was a "surprise" to learn that some European individuals had inherited genes for darker pigmentation up until the Iron Age, which was relatively recent in genetic terms, he told Live Science in an email... (MORE - missing details)
PAPER: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.01.29.635495
https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/...arch-finds
EXCERPTS: Most prehistoric Europeans had dark skin, hair and eyes well into the Iron Age, about 3,000 years ago, new research finds.
Scientists found that the genes that cause lighter skin, hair and eyes emerged among early Europeans only about 14,000 years ago, during the late stages of the Paleolithic period — also known as the "Old Stone Age." But these light features were only sporadic until relatively recently, said study senior author Silvia Ghirotto, a geneticist at the University of Ferrara in Italy.
Lighter skin may have carried an evolutionary advantage for Europeans because it enabled people to synthesize more vitamin D — needed for healthy bones, teeth and muscles — in Europe's weaker sunlight. But lighter eye color — blue or green, for example — does not seem to have had major evolutionary advantages, and so its emergence may have been driven by chance or sexual selection, Ghirotto told Live Science in an email.
[...] The genetic basis for lighter skin seems to have emerged in Sweden at about the same time as lighter eyes, but initially it remained relatively rare, Ghirotto said. The researchers also reported a statistical "spike" in the incidence of light eye color at this time, which suggested that blue or green eyes were more prevalent at that time than earlier or later.
Carles Lalueza Fox, a palaeogeneticist at Barcelona's Institute of Evolutionary Biology, is an expert on early European pigmentation but was not involved in the latest study. It was a "surprise" to learn that some European individuals had inherited genes for darker pigmentation up until the Iron Age, which was relatively recent in genetic terms, he told Live Science in an email... (MORE - missing details)
PAPER: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.01.29.635495