Stone-Age Hunter Had Blue Eyes And 'Dark, African Skin' According New Finding - But The Illustrator Can't Resist Drawing A Typical White Man

The caption for this illustration read: "An artist's impression" of what
the man with "dark, African skin and curly brown hair." Does this look
like "curly hair" and "dark African skin" to you? (Credit: Superior
Council for Scientific Research)

By Paul Rodgers
A stone-age hunter’s wisdom tooth has revealed that he had an unusual mix of racial traits – dark, African skin, curly brown hair and blue eyes.

Preliminary DNA analysis of the exceedingly well-preserved 7,000-year-old skeleton, dubbed Brana-1, has overturned ideas about the descent of modern Europeans.

Although the hunter’s closest modern-day relatives live in Sweden and Finland, the genes for his skin colour are African.

RELATED STORY: Black Men Who Are 'Educated' Appear 'Whiter' in Memory

Previously, scientists thought that fair skin evolved as people moved to northern latitudes, allowing them to absorb more sunlight for the production of vitamin D.

But Carles Lalueza-Fox of the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE) in Barcelona thinks it was the later shift to agriculture that was decisive.

Continue Reading...