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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsStick This in Your DEI Pipe and Smoke It
Europeans Were Mostly Dark-Skinned Until Roman Times, Ancient DNA SuggestsStory by Benjamin Taub
IFL Times, April 2, 2025
Until relatively recently, the combination of light skin, blue eyes, and blonde hair was something of a rarity among Europeans. According to new research, dark features may have been the norm all the way up until the Iron Age, which is considerably later than previously thought.
Having originated in Africa, humans started off with dark skin, hair, and eyes, before developing lighter tones once they spread into the chillier northern reaches of Eurasia. The theory is that paler skin absorbs more of the suns ultraviolet radiation, which is needed for the production of vitamin D, and therefore provides an evolutionary advantage in regions with less sunshine.
We knew from previous data that the first occurrences of light skins were around 15,000 years ago in the Caucasus region, said study author Professor Guido Barbujani. Speaking to IFLScience, he explained that the earliest light-skinned individuals were Anatolian farmers who spread across Europe during the Neolithic period and replaced the existing hunter-gatherer populations.
The idea [until now] was that it was a phenomenon like spreading butter on a piece of bread. You know, there's a wave of butter that occupies the whole slice, he said. However, the new study which is yet to be peer-reviewed shows that it was not like that. It was more like a leopard skin, with occasional occurrences of light and dark skins here and there.
"What we didn't know was that dark skins remained around until the Iron Age [...] Iron Age means the mythical foundation of Rome. It means the Trojan War." -- Professor Guido Barbujani
Continues...
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/europeans-were-mostly-dark-skinned-until-roman-times-ancient-dna-suggests/ar-AA1Aohbx
Does that include everybody? Adolf? Donald? Stephen Miller?
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Stick This in Your DEI Pipe and Smoke It (Original Post)
Kid Berwyn
Wednesday
OP
GreenWave
(10,880 posts)1. When humans moved out of Africa and met the Neanderthals from the North...
'nuf said?
Kid Berwyn
(19,730 posts)7. All today descend from 1 mother who lived 200,000 years ago.
Scientists discover that all humans come from the same mother who lived 200,000 years ago in Botswana
The study of mitochondrial DNA has enabled scientists to trace a family tree that connects all of humanity to a single female ancestor who lived 200,000 years ago in present-day Botswana.
by Mariano To ar
AS.com, April 2, 2025
If someone were to stand on a pulpit and say that all humans come from a first woman, Eve, and that this is an indisputable biblical truth, we would probably pay little or very little attention. But if a team of researchers were to publish in the prestigious scientific journal Nature that mitochondrial DNA proves that all of todays humanity comes from a single woman, we would certainly not be so quick to dismiss it.
The findings are not even current. That famous article, Mitochondrial DNA and human evolution was published in 1987 and was the first study to uncover the family tree of human evolution. Moreover, it came to that puzzling conclusion: all human beings come from a single woman, who was quickly christened Mitochondrial Eve.
Inside every cell of the body there is an organelle called mitochondria that has a DNA distinct from that of the cell itself. It has 37 genes of its own and is descended solely from the mothers mitochondrial DNA. Scientists sequenced that DNA in individuals from all over the world, analyzed their mutations, and came to the universally accepted conclusion that the original mitochondrial DNA came from a single individual, a woman. The study of the genetic mutations that this mitochondrial DNA has undergone has also served to understand human migrations throughout history.
Where did Mitochondrial Eve live?
Many studies have tried to place that first woman in time and on the map. And from what is known so far, she lived in southern Africa, in what is now Botswana, some 200,000 years ago. The problem is that the earliest evidence of Homo sapiens goes back 300,000 years, so before that woman there were many other women. How do we understand this?
The only scientific explanation is that all women with different mitochondrial DNA had their gene transmission interrupted because they only generated males or had no offspring at some point in history. It seems a little difficult to understand, but the theory of genetic drift explains that in small populations of any species with different versions of a DNA sequence, the less frequent versions tend to disappear and the majority one ends up becoming fixed in 100% of the population after a series of generations. This is something that occurs randomly, without taking into account natural selection, mutations or any other external factor, which also have an influence in deciding the dominant sequence.
Continues
https://en.as.com/latest_news/scientists-discover-that-all-humans-come-from-the-same-mother-who-lived-200000-years-ago-in-botswana-n/
The study of mitochondrial DNA has enabled scientists to trace a family tree that connects all of humanity to a single female ancestor who lived 200,000 years ago in present-day Botswana.
by Mariano To ar
AS.com, April 2, 2025
If someone were to stand on a pulpit and say that all humans come from a first woman, Eve, and that this is an indisputable biblical truth, we would probably pay little or very little attention. But if a team of researchers were to publish in the prestigious scientific journal Nature that mitochondrial DNA proves that all of todays humanity comes from a single woman, we would certainly not be so quick to dismiss it.
The findings are not even current. That famous article, Mitochondrial DNA and human evolution was published in 1987 and was the first study to uncover the family tree of human evolution. Moreover, it came to that puzzling conclusion: all human beings come from a single woman, who was quickly christened Mitochondrial Eve.
Inside every cell of the body there is an organelle called mitochondria that has a DNA distinct from that of the cell itself. It has 37 genes of its own and is descended solely from the mothers mitochondrial DNA. Scientists sequenced that DNA in individuals from all over the world, analyzed their mutations, and came to the universally accepted conclusion that the original mitochondrial DNA came from a single individual, a woman. The study of the genetic mutations that this mitochondrial DNA has undergone has also served to understand human migrations throughout history.
Where did Mitochondrial Eve live?
Many studies have tried to place that first woman in time and on the map. And from what is known so far, she lived in southern Africa, in what is now Botswana, some 200,000 years ago. The problem is that the earliest evidence of Homo sapiens goes back 300,000 years, so before that woman there were many other women. How do we understand this?
The only scientific explanation is that all women with different mitochondrial DNA had their gene transmission interrupted because they only generated males or had no offspring at some point in history. It seems a little difficult to understand, but the theory of genetic drift explains that in small populations of any species with different versions of a DNA sequence, the less frequent versions tend to disappear and the majority one ends up becoming fixed in 100% of the population after a series of generations. This is something that occurs randomly, without taking into account natural selection, mutations or any other external factor, which also have an influence in deciding the dominant sequence.
Continues
https://en.as.com/latest_news/scientists-discover-that-all-humans-come-from-the-same-mother-who-lived-200000-years-ago-in-botswana-n/
sop
(13,403 posts)2. A few years back racists were doing genetic background testing on Ancestry DNA to demonstrate 100% purity
of their "white European blood" to their fellow klansmen. To their immense embarrassment, many of them discovered their sub-Saharan African ancestry.
Hilarious.
dchill
(41,804 posts)6. That'll happen. Who knew? Bummer!
Norrrm
(1,026 posts)4. Evolution

North Coast Lawyer
(71 posts)5. Messy
Evolution and genetics are always messy (that's a good thing). My fair skinned blue eyed daughter is only about 40% European. Her sister who otherwise looks a lot like her is several shades darker and has brown eyes.