I’m referring to the human race evolving in the African continent and then migrating to the rest of the world.
Evolving in Europe made people light skinned to account for the reduction in sunlight exposure, are there any other traits which other ethnicities developed to adapt to their new environment? Or are the diifferent traits in different ethnicities just stuff that developed by chance and got somehow reinforced because of the isolation between populations?
This question came to my mind first thinking about “Asian eyes”, do they serve any “purpose”?
Yeah, depending on what you consider “new”.
- Nose shapes to account for dryer air on Africa and middle east.
- Nose shapes to account for colder weather.
- There are a group of people that have larger spleens to make them able to
drivedive for longer periods (Bajau People). - “Asian” eye-shape, afaik, is an adaptation to protect the eyes from sand.
The list is actually very long.
There’s also sickle cell anemia: IIRC it protects against something like the tse-tse fly or mosquito borne illnesses native to parts of the African continent
I believe that it offers a degree of protection against malaria. Or, enough protection that you live long enough to reproduce before dying a terrible, agonizing death.
Or, enough protection that you live long enough to reproduce before dying a terrible, agonizing death.
I think it’s protective when you have one copy of the gene, and detrimental when you have two copies. Unfortunately, malaria was a strong enough pressure that the sickle cell gene was selected for, up to a certain percentage of the gene pool.
