Folic acid among other things in the darkening of our skin.

[sargentlard]

Recently i have been thinking about this: Ok so taking into account that the theory that we all came from our ancestrial mother in Africa is true and that when some of the ancestrial bunch moved away into different Areas...(getting back to that later).....

Now the main point of this thread; The ancestrial bunch that stayed there ,of the early humans, did they develop dark skin to protect the reproduction feature of the human race. To protect the new generation of offspring from being born with dangerous defects such as Spinal Befida. Since the harsh amounts of sunlight can easily kill the folic acid supply in women causing them to have lack of Folic acid during Fetus development causing offspring to have birth defects in turn leading them to have a very low chance of survival...(even in this modern age). Also the dark skin in men would protect them from losing spearm due to the diminishing effects of folic acid in them. Could dark skin have been made for that reason. I suppose there are many other reason for the development of dark skin in these very hot climates so could this be one of them?????

 

[spuriousmonkey]

the other reason I heard of was that the dark skin actually protects better against infections, which are common in these tropical regions. Don't know if it is true though.

 

[Fafnir665]

Originally posted by spuriousmonkey
the other reason I heard of was that the dark skin actually protects better against infections, which are common in these tropical regions. Don't know if it is true though.

how can the color of skin have any effect on disease transmission? maybe humans of african decent have thicker skin, but i don't think actual color has anything to do with it

 

[wrmgrl]

Originally posted by sargentlard
The ancestrial bunch that stayed there ,of the early humans, did they develop dark skin to protect the reproduction feature of the human race.

I think there's an important possibility that you are neglecting. Perhaps those not remaining in Africa lost the skin pigmentation that was present in their common ancestor in Africa.
Unpigmented skin is more useful farther from the equator as it allows the skin to absorb more light in the form of heat, and make more vitamin E. Melanin is not necessary to protect against so much skin damage when there is not as much sun. There is no use to keep up a metabolically expensive pigment that might actually be detrimental in different climates.

 

[sargentlard]

Interesting, i did not take that thought into account. Though i am only reffereing to the ancesters that stayed behind in that hot zone. The high amount of sunlight could have caused the melanin to darken.

 

[SwedishFish]

wrmgrl is right on (except on vitamin E)

you're also looking at evolution as adapting to solve a problem. i'm all but certain our race started out dark skinned but hypothetically consider a light-skinned couple who give rise to a race of people with darker skin than their own. that would happen by chance and be rewarded with good reproductive fitness. your dna doesn't know what your environmental challenges are.

 

[spuriousmonkey]

it was the melanin that gave additional protection against infections.

 

[ElectricFetus]

Did your read this out of Scientific American, very good article. It had all the answer in predicting skin cooler thanks to the effects of folic acid levels and vitamin-E levels would balance out skin color in accordance to the amount of sun exposure.

 

[sargentlard]

Originally posted by WellCookedFetus
Did your read this out of Scientific American, very good article. It had all the answer in predicting skin cooler thanks to the effects of folic acid levels and vitamin-E levels would balance out skin color in accordance to the amount of sun exposure.

No actually my Bio teacher told us about it and i found it fascinating.