Latest news with #SilviaGhirotto
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Most ancient Europeans had dark skin, eyes and hair up until 3,000 years ago, new research finds
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Most prehistoric Europeans had dark skin, hair and eyes well into the Iron Age, about 3,000 years ago, new research finds. Scientists found that the genes that cause lighter skin, hair and eyes emerged among early Europeans only about 14,000 years ago, during the late stages of the Paleolithic period — also known as the "Old Stone Age." But these light features were only sporadic until relatively recently, said study senior author Silvia Ghirotto, a geneticist at the University of Ferrara in Italy. Lighter skin may have carried an evolutionary advantage for Europeans because it enabled people to synthesize more vitamin D — needed for healthy bones, teeth and muscles — in Europe's weaker sunlight. But lighter eye color — blue or green, for example — does not seem to have had major evolutionary advantages, and so its emergence may have been driven by chance or sexual selection, Ghirotto told Live Science in an email. Ghirotto and her colleagues analyzed 348 samples of ancient DNA from archaeological sites in 34 countries in Western Europe and Asia, according to research published Feb. 12 on the preprint server bioRxiv, which hasn't been peer-reviewed. The oldest, from 45,000 years ago, was from the Ust'-Ishim individual discovered in 2008 in the Irtysh River region of western Siberia; and another high-quality DNA sample came from the roughly 9,000-year-old SF12 individual from Sweden. But many of the older samples were badly degraded, and so the researchers estimated those individual's pigmentation using "probabilistic phenotype inference" and the HIrisPlex-S system, which can predict eye, hair, and skin color from an incomplete DNA sample. Related: Nearly 170 genes determine hair, skin and eye color, CRISPR study reveals Palaeoanthropologists think the first Homo sapiens permanently arrived in Europe between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago, which meant they weren't that far removed from their modern human ancestors in Africa. As a result, early Europeans initially only had genetics for dark skin, hair and eyes, which rely on hundreds of interconnected genes, Ghirotto said. Even after lighter traits emerged in Europe about 14,000 years ago, however, they only appeared sporadically in individuals until relatively recent times — about 3,000 years ago — when they became widespread, she said. The new study showed that the frequency of people with dark skin was still high in parts of Europe until the Copper Age (also known as the Chalcolithic period, which started about 5,000 years ago in Europe) and in some areas dark skin appeared frequently until even later, Ghirotto said. The researchers found that light eyes emerged among people in Northern and Western Europe between about 14,000 and 4,000 years ago, although dark hair and dark skin were still dominant at that time. (There are outliers, however. A 2024 genetic analysis showed a 1-year-old boy who lived in Europe about 17,000 years ago had dark skin, dark hair and blue eyes.) The genetic basis for lighter skin seems to have emerged in Sweden at about the same time as lighter eyes, but initially it remained relatively rare, Ghirotto said. The researchers also reported a statistical "spike" in the incidence of light eye color at this time, which suggested that blue or green eyes were more prevalent at that time than earlier or later. RELATED STORIES —1,500 ancient European genomes reveal previously hidden waves of migration, study finds —The first Europeans had a striking combination of features —India's evolutionary past tied to huge migration 50,000 years ago and to now-extinct human relatives Carles Lalueza Fox, a palaeogeneticist at Barcelona's Institute of Evolutionary Biology, is an expert on early European pigmentation but was not involved in the latest study. It was a "surprise" to learn that some European individuals had inherited genes for darker pigmentation up until the Iron Age, which was relatively recent in genetic terms, he told Live Science in an email. While the new research charts the emergence of traits like lighter skin, hair and eyes, the reasons these traits could have become an evolutionary advantage are still not well understood, he added.
The Independent
04-03-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Ancient Britons who built Stonehenge had dark skin, scientists reveal
The majority of Europeans living 5,000 years ago, including those who built Stonehenge, may have had dark skin, a new study suggests. It was already believed that Britain's early inhabitants, such as Cheddar Man, who lived 10,000 years ago, had dark skin and blue eyes before paler skin tones then emerged as a dominant trait years later. But now researchers the University of Ferrara in Italy say this change did not happen until centuries later than previously thought. Scientists analysed data from 348 genomes — the entire set of DNA instructions — from human remains of individuals who lived between 45,00 and 1,700 years ago. It was calculated that the vast majority (92 per cent) of those living in Europe in the Paleolithic period of the Stone Age, between 13,000 and 35,000 years ago, had dark skin and 8 per cent had 'intermediate' skin tones. However, the study suggests none had pale skin. This remained the norm for thousands of years, with DNA from the Iron Age, between 1,700 and 3,000 years ago, still showing 55 per cent of people had dark skin and 27 per cent had intermediate skin. They also found just 18 per cent had pale skin. There are about 26 genes associated with the production of melanin, which produces darker skin, and two specific types, eumelanin and pheomelanin, determine skin colour, hair and eye colour. Because skin and hair are not preserved in fossils, experts used the genetic code from human remains and compared it to data from modern Europeans, to predict the skin, hair and eye colour of ancient people. Scientists know that modern humans migrated from Africa to Europe and Asia about 60,000 to 70,000 years ago. As humans migrated into regions with lower ultraviolet (UV) radiation light, pigmentation became more common. As a result, these humans evolved to become lighter-skinned to adapt to allow more UV light to penetrate their skin, helping their bodies to produce vitamin D — which is vital for maintaining healthy bones and muscle. In comparison, darker skin contains more brown and black pigments than pale skin is better at protecting against UV damage from sunlight. However, for decades scientists assumed humans rapidly developed lighter skin tones after migrating from Africa, but this latest research suggests it far more gradual and Britons who built Stonehenge were likely to have had dark features, Silvia Ghirotto, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Ferrara in Italy explained. The study notes: 'By a probabilistic approach, we showed that eye, hair and skin colour changed substantially through time in Eurasia. 'It was reasonable to imagine that the first hunting-gathering settlers, who came from warmer climates, had mostly dark pigmentation. 'What was less expected was the long persistence of their phenotypes.' It added: 'Things changed afterwards, but very slowly, so that only in the Iron Age did the frequency of light skins equal that of dark skins; during much of prehistory, most Europeans were dark-skinned.' The study has been published on the pre-print server bioRxiv, meaning it's yet to be peer-reviewed.
