Oceanicpuppy
Superstar
Key points of Study.
-Her team, including African researchers, used a light meter to measure skin reflectance in 2092 people in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Botswana.
-They found the darkest skin in the Nilo-Saharan pastoralist populations of eastern Africa, such as the Mursi and Surma, and the lightest skin in the San of southern Africa, as well as many shades in between, as in the Agaw people of Ethiopia.
-The first surprise was that SLC24A5, which swept Europe, is also common in East Africa—found in as many as half the members of some Ethiopian groups. This variant arose 30,000 years ago and was probably brought to eastern Africa by people migrating from the Middle East, Tishkoff says.
-The team also found variants of two neighboring genes, HERC2 and OCA2, which are associated with light skin, eyes, and hair in Europeans but arose in Africa; these variants are ancient and common in the light-skinned San people. The team proposes that the variants arose in Africa as early as 1 million years ago and spread later to Europeans and Asians. “(Light skin may have evolved in Africa instead of Eurasia)
--, in the KhoeSan populations it appears in a much higher frequency than recent European admixture alone would suggest, indicating that it has either been positively selected in this population, actually arose in this population, or entered the population through gene flow thousands of years ago. "We're still teasing this apart," said Martin
-They also found that a gene called SMARCA2/VLDLR, which has not previously been associated with pigmentation in humans, seems to play a role among the KhoeSan.
- The most dramatic discovery concerned a gene known as MFSD12. Two mutations that decrease expression of this gene were found in high frequencies in people with the darkest skin.
-These variants arose about a half-million years ago, suggesting that human ancestors before that time may have had moderately dark skin, rather than the deep black hue created today by these mutations.
- These same two variants are found in Melanesians, Australian Aborigines, and some Indians. These people may have inherited the variants from ancient migrants from Africa who followed a “southern route” out of East Africa, along the southern coast of India to Melanesia and Australia, Tishkoff says
-Africa has the greatest amount of phenotypic variability in skin color, and yet it's been underrepresented in large scale endeavors,"
-"There are some genes that are known to contribute to skin pigmentation, but by and large there are many more new genes that have not been discovered."
-The study adds to established research undercutting old notions of race. You can’t use skin color to classify humans, any more than you can use other complex traits like height, Tishkoff says.
-Tishkoff says. “There is so much diversity in Africans that there is no such thing as an African race.”
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/10/new-gene-variants-reveal-evolution-human-skin-color
Skin pigmentation is far more genetically complex than previously thought: By studying an African population underrepresented in most datasets, researchers find genetic complexity of pigmentation varies by latitude
You can be light skinned and “black” or Sub Saharan African
-Her team, including African researchers, used a light meter to measure skin reflectance in 2092 people in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Botswana.
-They found the darkest skin in the Nilo-Saharan pastoralist populations of eastern Africa, such as the Mursi and Surma, and the lightest skin in the San of southern Africa, as well as many shades in between, as in the Agaw people of Ethiopia.
-The first surprise was that SLC24A5, which swept Europe, is also common in East Africa—found in as many as half the members of some Ethiopian groups. This variant arose 30,000 years ago and was probably brought to eastern Africa by people migrating from the Middle East, Tishkoff says.
-The team also found variants of two neighboring genes, HERC2 and OCA2, which are associated with light skin, eyes, and hair in Europeans but arose in Africa; these variants are ancient and common in the light-skinned San people. The team proposes that the variants arose in Africa as early as 1 million years ago and spread later to Europeans and Asians. “(Light skin may have evolved in Africa instead of Eurasia)
--, in the KhoeSan populations it appears in a much higher frequency than recent European admixture alone would suggest, indicating that it has either been positively selected in this population, actually arose in this population, or entered the population through gene flow thousands of years ago. "We're still teasing this apart," said Martin
-They also found that a gene called SMARCA2/VLDLR, which has not previously been associated with pigmentation in humans, seems to play a role among the KhoeSan.
- The most dramatic discovery concerned a gene known as MFSD12. Two mutations that decrease expression of this gene were found in high frequencies in people with the darkest skin.
-These variants arose about a half-million years ago, suggesting that human ancestors before that time may have had moderately dark skin, rather than the deep black hue created today by these mutations.
- These same two variants are found in Melanesians, Australian Aborigines, and some Indians. These people may have inherited the variants from ancient migrants from Africa who followed a “southern route” out of East Africa, along the southern coast of India to Melanesia and Australia, Tishkoff says
-Africa has the greatest amount of phenotypic variability in skin color, and yet it's been underrepresented in large scale endeavors,"
-"There are some genes that are known to contribute to skin pigmentation, but by and large there are many more new genes that have not been discovered."
-The study adds to established research undercutting old notions of race. You can’t use skin color to classify humans, any more than you can use other complex traits like height, Tishkoff says.
-Tishkoff says. “There is so much diversity in Africans that there is no such thing as an African race.”
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/10/new-gene-variants-reveal-evolution-human-skin-color
Skin pigmentation is far more genetically complex than previously thought: By studying an African population underrepresented in most datasets, researchers find genetic complexity of pigmentation varies by latitude
You can be light skinned and “black” or Sub Saharan African
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I just wanted know why I came out this light skinned yet still considerably of African descent. It didn’t make any sense because their were black people less African than me but still darker skinned. 
