Skin Color Is a Sunlight Map (Here's Why) | Ask a Neanderthal #1

Why do people have different skin colors? The answer starts with the sun. Professor Neander and Professor Dodo explain how our ancestors lost their fur, why dark skin protected them near the equator, why lighter skin helped people make vitamin D far from it, and why the map of skin color around the world looks almost exactly like a map of sunlight. Plus: a 10,000-year-old Briton with dark skin and blue eyes, the surprising variety of skin color in Africa, and what Neanderthal DNA has to do with your tan. Chapters 0:00 Every shade of skin 0:36 What gives skin its color 1:22 Losing our fur 2:20 Reason 1: folate 3:16 Reason 2: vitamin D 4:25 The sunlight map 5:20 Surprises in our DNA 6:40 The Neanderthal clue 7:12 Tans and sun safety 7:41 So why? 8:06 Next time: the chin Sources Jablonski & Chaplin (2000), The evolution of human skin coloration, Journal of Human Evolution Jablonski & Chaplin (2010), Human skin pigmentation as an adaptation to UV radiation, PNAS Webb, Kline & Holick (1988), Boston winter sunlight and vitamin D, J Clin Endocrinol Metab Crawford et al. (2017), Loci associated with skin pigmentation identified in African populations, Science Brace et al. (2019), Ancient genomes and the Cheddar Man, Nature Ecology & Evolution / Natural History Museum Dannemann & Kelso (2017), Neanderthal DNA and skin tone, hair color and tanning, American Journal of Human Genetics Norton et al. (2007), Light skin evolved separately in Europe and East Asia, Molecular Biology and Evolution Ask a Neanderthal is a cartoon series from Once Upon a Fossil about the strange, true story of the human body. #AskANeanderthal #HumanEvolution #SkinColor