Over extended periods of time, such as ten's of thousands of years, was climate a major factor in skin tone?

[Kelley1]

Loomis believed that people who live in the north, where daylight is weakest, evolved fair skin to help absorb more ultraviolet light and that people in the tropics evolved dark skin to block the light, keeping the body from overdosing on vitamin D, which can be toxic at high concentrations.

[jshm2]

No. You can hide any bullshit theory by adding "tens of thousands of years".

It's like one kid saying to another "My cousin in China drives a Ferrari!" They both know the other has no real way of checking, and will just need to accept it.

There is no real scientific reasoning for skin tone, other than medical. South African Whites haven't got "Blacker". Nor have African Americans got "Whiter" over the few modern recorded centuries.

Hence "climate" is not likely the proper answer.

[msc545]

There actually is a fairly good scientific reason, although it's not exactly climate. People with dark skin don't get skin cancer nearly as readily as people with light skin. Do. You extend that fact to evolution and you find out that people with dark skin are more likely to live longer and to reproduce because they live longer. Whereas people with light skin are more likely to die younger and to not reproduce as readily or as often because they tend to die of skin cancer even as the children. Therefore, as time goes by, the babies with dark skin tend to survive and babies with light skin and not to survive. I think you can see where this goes after enough time

[DrPepper12]

He's right. There's a reason Asians have "snowblind glasses" shaped eyes (too much reflected light) & Africans have curly hair (to disapate heat).

We're all products of climate!

[lightbulb27]

wow, never thought about the curly hair... and so explain straighter hair in northern peoples?

[Gwendoline]

Generally I think it's true. But also in the ancient past migrations. People moved around a lot.

[laly520]

genetic variations in skin tone based on regional environmental adaptations too

[OneViewpoint]

Not climate, LOL. Geography. Skin pigmentation is a biological response to UV radiation, not temperature. Equator = more consistent UV exposure. Polar regions tilted away from the sun half the year = less UV exposure.

Europeans migrated out of Africa. They were once dark skinned. They didn't lose that skin pigmentation the day they arrived in a higher latitude. It took steady change over thousands of years to get to the pale white sunburn magnets we see today.

[Dargil]

Climate/weather are geographically related, yes. I read that aborigines and New Guineans are descended from Mongolians. Look what happened.

[purplepoppy]

How do we know that maps right since we don't have skin from thousands of years ago.

Eskimos are dark skinned but that map has them white.

The British were dark skinned 5000 years ago, even less than 2000 years ago the Romans described them as dark.

Me thinks that map is bollocks

[Kelley1]

Eskimos are light skinned but a little darker than whites.

[jahaims]

They wore different furs etc. in the north as well. The uncovered skin needed to be more pale to absorb more from the sun. Evolution

[msc545]

Probably it was in that people with dark skin adapt to UV much more readily.

[CubaPirate]

Immigration lol

[Twalli]

It would make sense

[RedInnocent69]

Evidently