First European?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article -1177123/Revealed-Face-European-fragments-35-0 00-year-old-skull-flesh.html

'He said the skull doesn't actually look European, or Asian, or African. It looks like a mixture of all of them.

African? yes. Asian? Mmm. European definitely not.

What I find very hard to comprehend is the fact that they say all of human kind originally came from Africa.

Well maybe, there are people who have much more knowledge on these matters than me.

But how over the ages have the very dark pigmentation of an African's skin become a pale white of an European? I would have thought the only way to change the colour would be from inter-breeding.

Please don't anyone attach a racist argument to this, it is just a general query.

Incidentally I think the 'first modern European' looks very much like a deeply tanned Will Young.

[Ankou]

i thought it was the cro magnons in europe which generally came from africa. not sure how you can determine skin colour from an old skeleton, but i think evolution-wise we started off with pale skin under the body hair and then the dark skin evolved as a need to protect from harsher climes once we had less hair. when those dark skinned humans migrated to the northern areas, the skin grew paler as the sun was less intense. breeding and diet also payed a part.

[jno]

I think the continents had split up well before any of this, Steve.

There's some moderately technical stuff about skin colour here: partly to do with vitamin D production and partly because gentlemen prefer blondes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_skin_color

[Ankou]

well that isnt true!! id climb over 10 blondes to get to a fit brunette or redhead!!

not that i am a weird pervert or anything, just that this gentleman prefers non-blondes.

[rov1200]

These comments from 'science' may add to the discussion

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Science/Questio n750293.html