General Chat

Definitely agree, Guinevere.

The name Lucy springs to mind

Seems a bit old news - we know we all originated in Africa.

:-D :-D

I wonder if he had a 'cheesy' grin

:-D

Your wish is my command :-D

Allan :-D

...and get freckles, JoyLouise!

ElizabethK :-D :-D

DNA analysis of Chedder Man also shows he was "Lactose Intolerent" - irony being found in Chedder Gorge :-)

That's right, Allan, darker-skinned people still tan as I, too, discovered when I first went to Oz.

When we lived in Leonora in the north Eastern Goldfields there was an Aboriginal family next door to us.

Clem the head of the household normally wore a singlet.

One day he had removed it and I was surprised that the area it had covered was significantly paler that the rest of his skin.

Mind you, his youngest daughter had fair, almost blonde, hair :-S

I found this on the internet:
"The more melanin you have in your skin, the darker your skin color! People with fair skin have less melanin in their skin to begin with, but some of their melanocytes make more melanin when exposed to the sun. So instead of easily getting an even suntan, they sometimes get freckles."

So I presume (feel free to disagree :-D) that once mankind's skin became paler, freckles appeared!

I had very dark skin as a very young child - darkened by living in Malta.
We moved from Malta to Scotland.
While there, I still had quite a dark skin - but developed freckles in the summer :-S

I wonder where freckles first originated?

Interesting, that, Kense.

It is fairly obvious where OH's origins lie.

His DNA test revealed a terrifically high Northern County and Scandinavian background, something not entirely unexpected by me when looking at him and his family.

He bought both of us a test kit for Christmas and I have just sent my test for analysiis. I am expecting to be much more of a mongrel than OH.

:-D :-D

Caroline, I'll have you know, I was bringing up a huge brood of children.
Well, two of my own - the rest were at the school I was working in :-D

Thank you for the link, Kense :-D :-D :-D

This is the doggerland link I posted:

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/maps/doggerland/

Why the surprise? We were taught at school that humankind evolved in Africa.
We adapt to cope with differing environments.

The BBC quotes
Pale skin probably arrived in Britain with a migration of people from the Middle East around 6,000 years ago. This population had pale skin and brown eyes and absorbed populations like the ones Cheddar Man belonged to.

No-one's entirely sure why pale skin evolved in these farmers, but their cereal-based diet was probably deficient in Vitamin D. This would have required agriculturalists to absorb this essential nutrient from sunlight through their skin.
...
So our pale skin evolution could be down to weaker sunlight & diet!

Interesting Maggie you had enough free time to read the personals while filing your nails and drinking mugs of tea no doubt :-P :-D

Don't know, JoyLouise, it was about 30 years ago!

I didn't expect to see an advert of a lady 'offering her services' in the Guardian :-|

With 2 daughters, I decided it wasn't as 'respectable' as it alleged.