How is human skin color an example of evolution or an adaptation in humans?

How is human skin color an example of evolution or an adaptation in humans?

The evolution of humans is written on our skin. Beyond an identity signature, human skin color represents an example on how our species has been capable to adapt to different environments. The melanin determines skin pigmentation level (it is responsible for tanning) and acts as a protective barrier.

What are the unique evolutionary adaptations of human skin?

Skin color has changed during human evolution. These changes may result from adaptations to solar ultraviolet radiation (protection of sweat glands, sunburn, skin cancer, vitamin D deficiency, defence against microorganisms, etc.), and/or sexual selection.

How is skin color an adaptation?

Variations in human skin color are adaptive traits that correlate closely with geography and the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Since strong sun exposure damages the body, the solution was to evolve skin that was permanently dark so as to protect against the sun’s more damaging rays.

What makes human skin unique?

Skin is our most important barrier, and human skin has many functions that are in common with other animals but also unique to our species. General skin functions include sensing danger, regulation of internal temperature, maintaining fluid balance and mounting visual sexual displays.

What is the evolution of skin color?

Pigmentation, (skin color), in humans has evolved under selection pressure from the duration and intensity of sunlight. Ancestral populations near the equator were selected for dark skin, while those living in higher northern latitudes were selected for lighter skin.

Why are people’s skin colors different?

People have different skin colors mainly because their melanocytes produce different amount and kinds of melanin. The genetic mechanism behind human skin color is mainly regulated by the enzyme tyrosinase, which creates the color of the skin, eyes, and hair shades.

What has our skin adapted to According to Jablonski?

Nina Jablonski says that differing skin colors are simply our bodies’ adaptation to varied climates and levels of UV exposure.

What are features of skin?

The skin consists of three layers of tissue: the epidermis, an outermost layer that contains the primary protective structure, the stratum corneum; the dermis, a fibrous layer that supports and strengthens the epidermis; and the subcutis, a subcutaneous layer of fat beneath the dermis that supplies nutrients to the …

What is unique about skin?

Here are some of the most interesting facts about your skin: Your skin is its thickest on your feet (1.4mm) and thinnest on your eyelids (0.2mm). The skin renews itself every 28 days. Your skin constantly sheds dead cells, about 30,000 to 40,000 cells every minute!

How did humans change skin color?

Human skin color ranges from the darkest brown to the lightest hues. Differences in skin color among individuals is caused by variation in pigmentation, which is the result of genetics (inherited from one’s biological parents), the exposure to the sun, or both.

How is skin color an example of adaptation?

Beyond an identity signature, human skin color represents an example on how our species has been capable to adapt to different environments. Either as a protection against melanoma, the degradation of folate, or deficient levels of vitamin D, pigmentation or depigmentation of the skin is undoubtedly an adaptive trait in the evolution of humans.

How is the evolution of humans written on our skin?

The evolution of humans is written on our skin. Beyond an identity signature, human skin color represents an example on how our species has been capable to adapt to different environments.

How are microorganisms adapted to their niche in the skin?

The physical and chemical features of the skin select for unique sets of microorganisms that are adapted to the niche they inhabit. In general, the skin is cool, acidic and desiccated, but distinct habitats are determined by skin thickness, folds and the density of hair follicles and glands.

Why do people change the color of their skin?

Elucidating the evolutionary and genetic mechanisms that have allowed the darkening or lightening of the skin in humans has been the focus of many anthropologists, geneticists and evolutionary biologists over the last years. The world-wide distribution of human skin color is highly correlated with the intensity of incident UV radiation.