RE: paleonet peppered moth, out of Africa (only a question for curiosty, all others please delete)

["Nikolaus Malchus" <n.malchus@xxxxxxx>]

And they probably don't spend much time half-naked in the sun,
;-)

> William Durham (I think) has considered this problem from the 
> perspective of a lightening of skin color being advantageous in areas 
> where sunlight is in sparse enough to make vitamin D a resource often 
> in short supply.  He notes that 'eskimos' have an abundant 
> alternative source of vitamin D in their diet of fish and 
> (fish-eating) seals.
>   -Leigh
> 
> >Hi all,
> >
> >I have a possible answer to Peter's question:
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: paleonet-owner@nhm.ac.uk On Behalf Of Peter Paul Smolka
> >Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2005 5:48 PM
> >To: paleonet@nhm.ac.uk
> >Subject: Re: paleonet peppered moth, out of Africa (only a question for
> >curiosty, all others please delete)
> >
> ><snipped>
> >
> >It is often said that Europeans got pale for reasons of paleoclimatic
> >conditions in the Pleistocene/Holocene.
> >
> >On the other hand (here the question): The Asians (Siberians,
> >Indians (in the sense of North America) and Inuit ("Eskimos")
> >experienced similar conditions (also ice margins and thus precipitation,
> >lack of insolation in North America).
> >
> >As the insolation was most likely comparable: Why didn t they get pale?
> >
> >And: Why did they get a different skin and some (see research the Wella
> >company had to do) different hairs?
> >
> >Did they for example get earlier or later as we out of Africa?
> ><snipped>
> >
> >-----End Original Message-----
> >
> >
> >To even ask the question this way is to assume that all people,
> everywhere,
> >will always change in the same direction given roughly similar
> environments.
> >However, species are made up of many different populations, and each
> >population will experience different random mutations.
> >
> >I would think that mutations for low melanin levels just happened to
> occur
> >and successfully persist in a population of people living in Europe. 
> Hence,
> >the relatively melanin-deficient skin of many Europeans is just a little
> >historical quirk, an odd little change that "just happened to happen" in
> one
> >population.  It is *not* a trait that *has* to happen in any
> high-latitude
> >group.
> >
> >Of course, this is just my hypothesis -- anyone know of evidence to
> support
> >or refute it?
> >
> >Peg Yacobucci
> >Associate Professor
> >Bowling Green State University
> >Department of Geology
> >190 Overman Hall
> >Bowling Green, OH  43403
> >(419) 372-7982
> 
> 

-- 
__________________________________

Nikolaus Malchus

PhD (Geology)
Ramón y Cajal researcher (RyC 1)

Dept. de Geologia/Unitat Paleontologia
Universitat Auṭnoma de Barcelona
Campus, Edifici Cs
08193 Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès)
Catalonia, SPAIN

   Tel 34-93-581-1464
   Fax 34-93-581-1263
   Regular Fax to my e-mail box:
   x49-(0)89-1488-192-992

   nikolaus.malchus@uab.es (< 2 MB)
   n.malchus@gmx.net (> 2 MB)
____________________________________