Neanderthal DNA May Be Behind Why Your Skin And Hair Are A Certain Colour
In fact, it could also affect whether you're a day or night person.
You may have heard of our evolutionary cousins the Neanderthals; shorter, stockier versions of Homo Sapien. And though they died out around 30,000 years ago, we may actually be carrying far more of their genetic material than we previously realised.
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According to DNA evidence recovered from a newer sample, it seems a group of early homo sapiens travelled to Eurasia, where they encountered the Neanderthals and eventually interbred with them. Thanks to that, scientists believe that one to three percent of all non-African genomes contain Neanderthal DNA. Indigenous Africans however have very little Neanderthal DNA, likely because their ancestors didn't make the trip through Eurasia.
That DNA can actually affect a lot of things about us, according to a study from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, including skin tone, hair colour and sleep patterns. Michael Dannemann, the lead author on the research paper, says his team analysed data from over 100,000 people in the UK Biobank, looking for any associations between human and Neanderthal appearances and behavioural traits that could be explained by the DNA.
The most common factor associated with a lot of these common traits actually has to do with Neanderthals receiving a wider range of exposure to daylight and short ultraviolet rays (UVB) in their 100,000 years in Eurasia. Multiple Neanderthal genes affect hair and skin colours, some making them darker and others lighter. Of course, our characteristics are influenced by various genes simultaneously, so Neanderthal genetic material isn¡¯t the only reason you¡¯re pale or have black hair. However, it does show that they themselves likely had a range of skin and hair tones.
Basically, the Neanderthals weren¡¯t very much different from us. Think about that the next time you use the word as an insult.
