Skin colour

[bgmnts]

Bit of a weird one but we all know that life began in Africa and spread out in all different directions, and that skin pigmentation is down to melanin right, and that is in part due to the amount of sun the nearer you are to the equator, right? So we started out very dark skinned and the further we moved far enough from the equator we'd get lighter and lighter. So how come this only happened going north? Why were there no white people in the south of Africa or Australia or the south of South America? Is it not far enough from the equator or did people specifically breed in Europe and Asia to create lighter skin?

WERE there light skinned people in these regions?

[Captain Z]

The equator is much further "south" than you'd guess looking at a typical map of the world. South Africa is the same distance from the equator as Morocco/Egypt, for example.

[gib]

[bgmnts]

So if you were to go back thousands of years to the southern tip of Aus or Argentina you'd find tribes of white people? That would be fascinating!

[Johnny Yesno]

Thread started by pgmnts.

[Zetetic]

So if you were to go back thousands of years to the southern tip of Aus or Argentina you'd find tribes of white people? That would be fascinating!

I don't think that's guaranteed and I don't think it's true for Aboriginal Australians (although I'd be interested in being proved wrong).

Depends on actual selective pressure to lose eumelanin production (e.g. importance of Vit D deficiency) and luck, I guess.

[Zetetic]

Where that map is from:
https://news.psu.edu/story/381539/2015/11/18/research/sepia-rainbow

[El Unicornio, mang]

WERE there light skinned people in these regions?

No, it's just a pigment of your imagination.

[bgmnts]

Where that map is from:
https://news.psu.edu/story/381539/2015/11/18/research/sepia-rainbow

That was interesting.

I liked this:

As she explains, the sun's ultraviolet rays, in addition to causing cell damage and other forms of harm, play a vital role in human health

Nature is fucking weird.

[Dex Sawash]

Thread started by pgmnts.

Really need a b2p transition gif

[ZoyzaSorris]

Is it not far enough from the equator

This, basically - there is a large amount of landmass in the northern hemisphere at high latitudes and there isn't at similar latitudes in the southern hemisphere. Even southern Australia is relatively close to the equator compared with much of Europe. As for southern South America (the tip is about as far south as the UK is north) - people first reached that area fairly recently, at least relative to the time since Homo sapiens first left Africa.

[Inspector Norse]

Explain penguins then

[BlodwynPig]

Thread started by pgmnts.

best thing you've ever posted ;)

[Ray Travez]

No, it's just a pigment of your imagination.

laughed

[Pearly-Dewdrops Drops]

I don't think that's guaranteed and I don't think it's true for Aboriginal Australians (although I'd be interested in being proved wrong).

Depends on actual selective pressure to lose eumelanin production (e.g. importance of Vit D deficiency) and luck, I guess.

I don't know how da fuck climate or the equator or melanin works, but the majority of Aboriginal Australians lived in the tropical/sub-tropical part of Australia. The Maori in New Zealand are much lighter skinned, for example.

[Zetetic]

Interesting point about the Maori.

[gib]

I don't know how da fuck climate or the equator or melanin works, but the vast majority of Aboriginal Australians lived in the tropical/sub-tropical part of Australia that most people forget about. The Maori in New Zealand are much lighter skinned, for example.

they showed up in NZ in medieval times so probably don't count but yeah

[Pijlstaart]

Agree we need skin, but don't see why it has to be on us. From an evolutionary perspective it makes sense to carry it about loose like a big tarpaulin, so versatile, you've got a bindle, you've got an easy-clean crashmat for your forward-roll shits, no phimosis deaths as you can roll the whole thing up into a big foreskin at will. It just makes sense . Founder effect, this attached skin malarkey, no way we'd be able to sexually compete with loose-skinned men, would love nothing more than to watch them erect skin-tent boudoirs and generation
by generation shag the skin off our women.

[touchingcloth]

Polar bears took this idea to extremes.

[Sherringford Hovis]

I'm so white I live at the North Pole according to that map. Or imperially-measured depths underground, pasty Troglophile, fathoms deep. I'm so white that polar bears ask "Who's that honky?" Just 20 minutes in the sun and the likes of Cyriak make meme-gifs of my magenta boat-race to wind up Brexshitters though.

[Pearly-Dewdrops Drops]

Polar bears took this idea to extremes.

They've actually got dark black skin (and their fur ain't even white, it's transparent) - unless this is one of those Amazing Facts that goes around but is actually false.