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Neanderthal Ancestors May Be To Blame For Why You Can't Get a Tan (telegraph.co.uk)

Posted by BeauHD on from the golden-brown dept.

turkeydance shares a report from The Telegraph: If you struggle to get a tan, consider yourself a night owl or are plagued with arthritis, then your Neanderthal ancestors could be to blame, a new genetic study has shown. Although Neanderthals are often portrayed in drawings as swarthy, in fact they arrived in Northern Europe thousands of years before modern humans, giving time for their skin to become paler as their bodies struggled to soak up enough sun. When they interbred with modern humans those pale genes were passed on. Likewise, genetic mutations which predispose people to arthritis also came from our Neanderthal ancestors, as did the propensity to be a night owl rather than a lark, as northern latitudes altered their body clocks. A raft of new papers published in the journals Science and the American Journal of Human Genetics has shed light on just how many traits we owe to our Neanderthal ancestors.

Scientists also now think that differences in hair color, mood and whether someone will smoke or have an eating disorder could all be related to inter-breeding, after comparing ancient DNA to 112,000 British people who took part in the UK Biobank study. The Biobank includes genetic data along with information on many traits related to physical appearance, diet, sun exposure, behavior, and disease and helps scientists pick apart which traits came from Neanderthals. Dr Janet Kelso, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, in Germany, said: "We can now show that it is skin tone, and the ease with which one tans, as well as hair color that are affected."

14 of 118 comments (clear)

  1. If you struggle to get a tan, consider yourself.. by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 2

    If you struggle to get a tan, consider yourself a night owl or are plagued with arthritis

    Stop spying on me, NSA!

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  2. Racism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The article indicates that early humans developed strategies to avoid interbreeding, recognizing that there were dangers associated with doing so. Although many people consider religion ridiculous now, it may have provided a survival advantage at one time, promoting an orderly society. It seems like the attempts to avoid interbreeding may have also conferred a survival advantage, and that trait may persist to this day as racism and avoiding diversity. It makes me wonder if racism, awful as it is, may have once provided a very real survival advantage to early humans.

    1. Re: Racism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You're an asshole for labeling me a troll. I'm asking a serious question of whether racism is the evolutionary remnant of something that once conferred a survival advantage. I'm suggesting that humans evolved to avoid mingling and mating with those who looked and acted differently as a mechanism to prevent interspecies mating. What once might have provided an advantage to early humans is now probably harmful, but our genes haven't caught up to that reality.

      Early humans didn't understand genetics and the actual differences between them and neanderthals. Early humans looked different from neanderthals and probably acted differently. The article suggests that humans and neanderthals didn't just try to avoid interbreeding but also isolated themselves socially. If interbreeding was dangerous, there would have been a survival advantage to avoiding those who looked and acted differently.

      There are plenty of evolutionary traits that were once useful but no longer are. The desire to avoid mingling with those who looked and acted differently would have once served a purpose of preventing interspecies mating. The same trait might manifest itself today as racism. Although it would no longer serve a useful purpose, I'm suggesting that racism might be an evolutionary trait. Traits like skin color have evolved because of the latitudes that humans resided at. However, in the times were talking about, humans didn't travel the world and freely migrate as they do today. Europeans and Americans might well have never encountered anyone from Africa, and mixed-race mating might not have been much of an issue. However, interspecies mating obviously did occur.

    2. Re:Racism by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      The article indicates that early humans developed strategies to avoid interbreeding, recognizing that there were dangers associated with doing so.

      They didn't recognize anything. It's more dangerous not to interbreed. Inbreeding reinforces recessives.

      Although many people consider religion ridiculous now, it may have provided a survival advantage at one time, promoting an orderly society.

      Religion often still offers an advantage for the members, or a subgroup of the members. It just tends to shit on everyone else.

      It seems like the attempts to avoid interbreeding may have also conferred a survival advantage, and that trait may persist to this day as racism and avoiding diversity.

      No, those attempts to avoid interbreeding actually harmed viability. You want a broader gene pool to work with.

      It makes me wonder if racism, awful as it is, may have once provided a very real survival advantage to early humans.

      Nope, it's a bug. The tendency to avoid things that don't look like you is a defense strategy, but if you take it too far then you will miss out on needed genetics.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re: Racism by turbidostato · · Score: 2

      "if there are an "us" and a "them", one of those two sets *must* be better than the other -and it won't be "us", so it must be "them""

      Obviously I meant the other way around.

    4. Re: Racism by PPH · · Score: 2

      Regardless, there is no established conclusion that mating withing a closed circle is somehow bad.

      Ashkenazi Jews. British royalty. Hillbillies. Isolated animal populations. Lots of other counter examples.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
  3. Re:Paywalled non-information by raburton · · Score: 2

    They ask you to sign up for a free account for full text, so you have to jump through one small hoop, but to describe it as "paywalled" and "not for the public" is simply false.

  4. Study by Ebsolas · · Score: 2

    The more study results I see on /. the more I come under the opinion that studies aren't real science. Rather they're a means to prove a point using whatever means possible.

    1. Re:Study by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      One study is not science. One study is just one study, even if it's scientific. Science is a process. New scientific "discoveries" are often "bullshit". Once the science has been around for a while, and been reviewed, then it becomes relevant. Consequently we waste time discussing a lot of science-related bullshit here on Slashdot.

      That doesn't invalidate science, but it does suggest that people who see one study and say "see!?" are idiots.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  5. Re:Oh, for crying out loud. by thomst · · Score: 4, Insightful

    jcr snorted:

    This is nothing even close to /. material.

    Oh really?

    a. /. supposedly is "News for nerds."

    b. I'm an unashamed nerd. I'm also a night owl, I burn, rather than tan, and I suffer from "moderate" osteoarthritis. And I'm of northern European extraction (Irish, Welsh, and Prussian to be precise). For all those reasons, this interests me.

    I'll bet you a shiny, new quarter I'm not alone, either ...

    --
    Check out my novel.
  6. Re:Oh, for crying out loud. by alvinrod · · Score: 2, Funny

    That may be true, but you don't hear about many Neanderthal women getting into programming, so clearly we should be talking about the gender gap instead.

    Though come to think of it, I'm not seeing any Neanderthal men either, so it must be a full blown racial issue!

  7. Easy solution by nospam007 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Just do it like the Neanderthal-in-Chief and use Tan-in-Bottle.

    1. Re:Easy solution by Tablizer · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That's an insult to Neanderthals

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  8. Re:Tan? by TeknoHog · · Score: 2

    With all that interbreeding, at least they had their sin worked out.

    --
    Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.