Ancient DNA reveals how Europeans became white

Analysis of ancient DNA may have revealed how Europeans ‘turned white’ after humans spread out of Africa.

Daniel Zadik of the University of Leicester says that analysis of ancient DNA shows that at one point, Europe may have seen populations of hunter gatherers with blue eyes and dark skin.

Europeans only developed lighter skins much later, and Zadik believes this may have been due to Middle Eastern immigrants during the Bronze Age.

Writing on The Conversation, Zadik says, ‘These various traits may originate in different ancient populations.

‘Blue eyes could come from hunter gatherers in Mesolithic Europe (10,000 to 5,000 BC), while other characteristics arrived later with newcomers from the East.

‘Two mutations responsible for light skin, however, tell quite a different story.

‘Both seem to have been rare in the Mesolithic, but present in a large majority by the Bronze Age (3,000 years later), both in Europe and the steppe. As both areas received a significant influx of Middle Eastern farmers during this time, one might speculate that the mutations arose in the Middle East.

‘They were probably then driven to high levels by natural selection, as they allowed the production of sufficient vitamin D further north despite relatively little sunlight, and/or better suited people to the new diet associated with farming.