Why aren't Australians black?

Question

I thought Australia and Africa was about the same in temperature, so how comes African people developed melanin but Australians not so much?
Is it because Australians ended up in Australia when houses started being built so they stay out of the sun more... And Africans was out in the sun most of the time in the caveman days when no houses was built so they are exposed to it more?

NamerOfStars · Accepted Answer

You're a little mixed up, here. Africans didn't "develop" melanin; it's been in our genetic code for millions of years. When protohuman apes starting losing their fur, darker skin provided a survival advantage in central Africa, so the first humans (depending on where you draw the line, I suppose) were black. You can see just how pronounced the change was by looking at shaved apes. As we spread out of Africa, we reached places that got less sunlight, so light skin provided a survival advantage (on the Serengeti, pale skin means you sunburn to death; in northern Europe, dark skin means you die of vitamin D deprivation), so when that mutation showed up, it became dominant there. And in other places, with other conditions, skin colors somewhere in between showed up.

Australia wasn't settled by black Africans, but by southeastern Asians. If you look at their descendants now (there has been remarkably little interbreeding between the Aborginal and European populations), you'll see their skin is darker than that of white people, but lighter than that of blacks. Their facial and bodily features are also much more like those of Polynesians than either of the previous groups.

Natural selection doesn't work by examining a niche and deciding what features would work best there; there's no guiding intellect behind it. It works by mutation; errors in genetic replication. If those errors provide an advantage, it works better and is more likely to spread. If not, it'll probably die out. There was no real advantage to having darker skin than the proto-Aboriginals already did (remember that when they arrived, Australia was a forest, not a desert), so if it did show up, it wouldn't've been selected for.

Effably · Accepted Answer

Australia has had its own indigenius population for a very long time. It was however settled by Europeans in 1788 when Great Britain basically decided to ship their criminals there. Australia as such began as a prison colony and is today a shining example that a new chance is a better approach than punishment. It is all a pretty cool part of history.

purplepoppy · Accepted Answer

Before Europeans arrived the aborigines had not developed past the stone age. They had not yet learnt to make metal, developed a written language, mathematics, invented the wheel, even their art hadn't progressed past simple rock art. The migration of Europeans was no worse than say homo sapians replacing Neanderthals or the beaker people ousting older tribes.

sunflower00 · Accepted Answer

Like others have said, native Australians are black but there is a large number of white people there from Europe. The history behind it is sad, like the native Americans :(

wankiam · Answer

native aboriginals are black but most australians came from western Europe... really you do need to brush up on world history a bit

Sirenboobzilla · Answer

Aborigines are indeed black. See what happened then was this... knock knock, it's Euorope

Dargil · Answer

Like the USA, Australia was settled by white Western Europeans.
Indonesians migrated south and became progressively darker starting in New Guinea. and then Aborigines in Australia. The whites did not often intermarry with them.

Recurrence · Answer

There’s been black people in Australia for like 60,000 years

josephinelcajon · Answer

Boy O boy you need a serious history lesson! The British used it as a dumping grounds for criminals and unwanted. They are British! The natives are close to black but I think they are not considered black

anylolone · Answer

Nope. It's because australians are mostly from european descent.

Australian aboriginals were mostly killed by foreign born diseases brought by colonists.
They had no immunity because they never caught such diseases because they literally forgot how to build boats. Which is why indonesia and philipines mostly brown, because they didn't die in droves from foreign born diseases because they were still in some contact with asia.

elizsaeli · Answer

I think you already know indigenous Australians have dark skin

boggboss · Answer

Have u never seen someone native to Australia?

Anonymous · Answer

The people native to Australia are black.

888theGreat · Answer

The ones in the Bush are.

SmokinAces2000 · Answer

Native Australias are black

joeldalton · Answer

Yes, that's exactly the reason. Good job!

OddBeMe · Answer

Same reason Americans aren’t Indians.

Why aren't Australians black?

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