Skin cancer risk may have driven evolution of black skin

Given the geographic distribution of skin shades before wide-spread re-location, it would be surprising if dark skin were not protective against the sun's rays.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-02/iocr-scr022514.php

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 25-Feb-2014
Contact: Henry French
Institute of Cancer Research

Skin cancer risk may have driven evolution of black skin


Early humans may have evolved black skin to protect against a very high risk of dying from ultraviolet light (UV)-induced skin cancer, a new analysis concludes.

Skin cancer has usually been rejected as the most likely selective pressure for the development of black skin because of a belief that it is only rarely fatal at ages young enough to affect reproduction.

But a new paper, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, cites evidence that black people with albinism from parts of Africa with the highest UV radiation exposure, and where humans first evolved, almost all die of skin cancer at a young age.

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