Variation of physical characteristics as humans moved from Africa

[Jamdown123]

I'm really not trying to be goody here, just wondering whether anyone can point me in the direction of any sources which explain or discuss how people came to look different to black people (which we are pretty much agreed all people were In The Beginning).

My children have been asking and I'd prefer to give at least a decent scientific explanation.

Any help would be great.

Skin lightened to get the vitamin D as people
moved to cooler climates. Dark skin is obviously better adapted to hot conditions as it offers protection.

Noses in cooler climates became longer and thinner to adapt to the cooler air. African noses are wider and designed for humid air.

Lips became smaller as large lips provide a surface area for cooling.

That’s about what I remember for now, I found it interesting at the time looking into it.

Basically TLDR - people adapt over time to their environment.

"how people came to look different to black people"

Hmmmmmmm......

@Teflondreams

Skin lightened to get the vitamin D as people moved to cooler climates. Dark skin is obviously better adapted to hot conditions as it offers protection.

Noses in cooler climates became longer and thinner to adapt to the cooler air. African noses are wider and designed for humid air.

Lips became smaller as large lips provide a surface area for cooling.

That’s about what I remember for now, I found it interesting at the time looking into it.

Thank you very much.

I've found some theories. Just I don't know what to trust. I like to try my best to answer all of the why's and wherefore of my children, but sometimes I am completely stumped!

I wouldn't ask this elsewhere as it would just attract a load o pointless responses, when I'm trying to get answers to a real and valid question.

Thanks

“People” ?

I know it's probably an oversight, on your part, but we are allpeople.

There aren't black people and then people; there are people (obvs from different areas).

C'mon, now...

Equally, I'm not trying to be goady.

@Blackisblackisblack you're being very generous with "I know it's probably an oversight"!

Sorry, you're going to have to spell this out to me. Let's just say it's not an oversight - what do you think I meant by people/black people?

The implication being that black people aren’t people

Oh right.

No, that's not what I meant. Thanks.

Yeah, that read pretty damn badly.

When, how and why did black people evolve into people.

I assume you accidentally missed out the word white because you meant to ask how our black ancestors evolved to have different skin colours, hair types, facial features etc.

I think my train of thought went something like this:
white people - no, I'm not actually talking about just white people
other people - that's just offensive
non-black people - goodness, that just sounds off
some people - that's vague and silly

Then somehow I just left people with nothing preceding it, was likely distracted by a child or something.

But I did get a few answers I can give to my children next time they ask, which is great.

Thanks

White skin has only evolved in the last 10000 years or so

I think by “people” the OP just meant “some people” not “all people” as some are reading it. It’s so easy for misunderstandings to arise from a completely innocent choice of phrase that can be read two ways but do understand why PP assumed the worst when frequently people say things deliberately or out of ignorance.

In addition, there were already humans of different subspecies around the world when Homo Sapiens Sapiens started to migrate out of Africa. They interbred with them and that contributed to the differences we see today as well

I do want to say that our common ancestor migrating out of Africa over tens of thousands of years did not look like how African black peoples look today. There has been evolution on all the continents. So it wasn’t technically that we all started as black people with black skin and wide noses who then turned white or Asian at a later date. This all happened over 300,000 years that the species diverged from a common Homo Sapiens Sapiens ancestor into what we call different races (but all same species) to biologically adapt to the different environments and climate change....because Africa was not always the climate it is now. Nowhere is.

Some differences were not adaptations but simple surprise mutations that did not affect survivability such as blue eyes which have been traced to a mutation in Spain.

*30,000 yrs. I have accidentally put an extra zero in there.

Here is a link to what the earliest Homo sapiens Sapiens looked like based on DNA analysis for skin, hair and eye colour and then reconstruction using an actual skull to determine facial features.
www.zmescience.com/science/virtual-reconstruction-homo-sapiens-europe/

Modern day people...we all evolved from that in our different corners of the world...including today’s black people.

The idea all people were black in the beginning is actually left over from racist scientific thought in the past when it was thought that black people were less evolved and more like ancestral humans, thus inferior to the more evolved white people. The truth is we were all brown people in the past and we all have evolved since then. No race is more evolved than another.

That's really interesting @PlanDeRaccordement, I'll look up those threads of theory. So funny how blue eyes mattered not one jot, and has since had such significance.

Thanks

Yes it is funny. The Homo sapiens sapiens that migrated to Europe seem to have got the jackpot when it comes to eye colour mutations...or did they inherit it from interbreeding with the Neanderthals who were already there?

Here is another link talking about the recent research done using DNA analysis.....
www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/10/new-gene-variants-reveal-evolution-human-skin-color

Here’s how it starts...
“Until recently, researchers assumed that after human ancestors shed most body hair, sometime before 2 million years ago, they quickly evolved dark skin for protection from skin cancer and other harmful effects of UV radiation. Then, when humans migrated out of Africa and headed to the far north, they evolved lighter skin as an adaptation to limited sunlight. (Pale skin synthesizes more vitamin D when light is scarce.)

Previous research on skin-color genes fit that picture. For example, a “depigmentation gene” called SLC24A5 linked to pale skin swept through European populations in the past 6000 years. But Tishkoff ’s team found that the story of skin color evolution isn’t so black and white”

A good read, thank you.

I probably do need to look up a few scientific papers, because it likely is a very shifting and changing field.

But for now, I have some bare bones to satisfy and few under 10 years olds!

@Isbobmyuncle
Am late to the party so catching up
And I totally agree with you!

@Jamdown123
Fairly new to Blackmumnetters and wanted to know
What replies did you get to your query?
Especially the
'How people became to look different to black people' line?
Am intrigued