Since I will be writing a great deal about Neandertals, please keep this image in your mind. I know that most readers of this blog don't view Neandertals as chimps, but I check google news for evolution and genetics related topics and the recent spate of articles on archaic genomics did spawn a few "Neandertals closer to chimpanzees" pieces. Those of you versed in cladistics, or any sort of taxonomy, are likely outraged, but that's just how it is. The photo to the left is of a child, and perhaps "humanized" a bit too much, but Neandertals were clearly humans. The child has light skin, hair and eyes, something one might expect from a lineage which was resident in Europe for nearly 1 million years. The MC1R locus which controls aspects of pigment production is extremely polymorphic in Europeans. If you run a coalscent simulation it seems that this gene would have needed nearly 1 million years to build up as much diversity as you see in Europe if one assumes selective neutrality (if you model it as a loss of function, so a relaxed selective regime, then it is an acceptable hypothesis). The alternative hypothesis is a form of negative frequency dependent selection for novelty which would result in phenotypic and genetic diversification. The former option clearly points to the possibility that the diversity in MC1R might be due to the absorption of a Neandertal element into the early H. sapiens sapiens population of Europe. The only caution I would add is that some of the alleles for light skin and eye color might be under only recent selection within the last 10,000 years in Europe. So Neandertals might have been as swarthy as the typical Inuit, who knows? I would be willing to bet that Neandertals had light skin and hair though, the two are somewhat related, and MC1R does have a strong relationship to red hair. Eye color is sketchier, and unlike light hair it seems to be evident only in European or near-European populations. Interesting times....
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Isn't that Ron Weasley?
If he were in Shrek, he'd fit right in.
How long before we see caricatures of neandertals in aryan supremist garb? Oh wait. Maybe we've already been seeing it in real life! No caricature necessary!
Neil - The Ron Weasley catch was good! The kid does look like the father could be the Geico cave-man guy though...
I am not sure that it's a good bet that Neandertals had light skin and hair. Ancient Britons, Basques, the Welsh and various Gaelic populations tend to be dark haired and swarthy. The same is true of the peoples from Spain to Greece to Turkey, which may have overlapped the range of Neandertals.
Skin color, eye color, hair color, body hair, and hair length seem to vary somewhat independently of each other, or are subject to different forces. There is the obvious example of Australian aborigines with dark skin and blondish hair. It is also possible that early humans had pale skin, and that human populations later developed darker skin, but obviously retained genes for lighter skin, which re-appeared later depending on time, environment and other factors.
I am not sure that it's a good bet that Neandertals had light skin and hair. Ancient Britons, Basques, the Welsh and various Gaelic populations tend to be dark haired and swarthy. The same is true of the peoples from Spain to Greece to Turkey, which may have overlapped the range of Neandertals.
these populations would have been in europe for a maximum of 30 K, and more likely in the 10-20 K range. neandertals and their archaic precursors would have been in europe for 1,000 K years.
Skin color, eye color, hair color, body hair, and hair length seem to vary somewhat independently of each other, or are subject to different forces. There is the obvious example of Australian aborigines with dark skin and blondish hair. It is also possible that early humans had pale skin, and that human populations later developed darker skin, but obviously retained genes for lighter skin, which re-appeared later depending on time, environment and other factors.
no need to speculate, i've discussed this in detail
1) hair and skin color do share some genes
2) eye color seems independent
3) the evidence on australian aboriginals is that their blondness is due to different genetic factors than in europeans, and might even be gain of function
4) dark skin seems to be the post-fur ancestral state, dark skinned populations tend to be dark skinned in the same way
5) light skin evolved several times in different ways via loss of function
please read these posts if you have more questions.
"dark haired and swarthy"
Really not the case. Dark haired and light skinned. Swarthy no. Most wouldnt even tan.
Could be. My first guess was Chelsea Clinton.