Early man colour

[boobesque]

Hi.

I often see early homos (lol) represented on television as caucasians. Yet if early man came out of africa wouldn't they be black? or is the skin colour of modern man a more recent evolutionary trait?

Thanks

[dothawkes31]

Hiya!!! It wasn't Africa when they lived there though but. I wonder what they called it?

[beso]

Nobody knows since skin colour is not preserved in fossils.

[jake-the-peg]

There is a belief that the skin colour underneath hair on very early homonoids was pale in the same way that is is in chimps and that the dark colour only evolved after hair loss to protect against UV.

Paper on the adaptation to UV here:

http://www.bgsu.edu/d...i_skin_color_2000.pdf