• Question: i've been wondering about melanin. according to my science teacher, it happened because of "survival of the fittest" and i understand that but i still don't know if it was white people that evolved to have it in their skin or is it the other way around?

    Asked by pack520much on 7 Apr 2025.
    • Photo: Erin Pallott

      Erin Pallott answered on 7 Apr 2025:

      Genetics is not my area of expertise, but here is where I read about it: https://anth.la.psu.edu/research/research-labs/jablonski-lab/evolution-of-human-skin-and-skin-pigmentation/

      Melanin acts as a natural sunscreen, protecting against harmful UV rays. Essentially, it helps minimise UV damage to DNA while allowing enough UV light for vitamin production. So for the survival of the fittest, the first humans on the African continent would have needed enough melanin to balance between those two.
      As humans migrated North, they evolved less melanin to allow enough vitamin D production in areas with less intense sun. So essentially, white people evolved to have less melanin than their ancestors who had more.

      I hope this helps, and maybe a geneticist can provide more information!

Comments

  • Photo: Jo

    Jo commented on :

    Characteristics, or features, which are beneficial in a particular habitat or environment mean that those individuals are more likely to survive, thrive, reproduce and pass on those characteristics to the next generation. They are a good “fit” to that environment. We all have melanin – to varying degrees – more in darker skin, less in lighter skin, more in brown eyes, less in blue eyes. Producing lots of melanin would have been / is beneficial in hot, sunny environments as it protects the skin from damage (to some extent). Therefore, individuals who produced more melanin were a better ‘fit’ for environments with lots of sun, so those characteristics were passed onto the next generation and so on.