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Originally Posted by
markod
The farmers in the north became increasingly depigmented as well, and it seems like HG admixture temporarily lead to darker pigmentation. The farmers from northern Spain have strongly inflated HG ancestry and they're much darker than their eastern relatives.
It is a good idea to look at other animals when it comes to questions like this - there is no need to invoke convoluted explanations just because we're talking about humans. The most depigmented species tend to be cave dwellers who tend to live in complete darkness. They lose their color because it serves no function and because pigmentation comes at a significant cost.
Very true. You can see the pigmentation of the Hungarian Neolithic here. It's lighter than that of the Iberian Neolithic, and by the time of Neolithic 7 and Copper Age 1, they actually have the full, modern complement of skin de-pigmentation snps and lighter hair paired with light eyes is also showing up. The Bronze Age people have the skin de-pigmentation, but in these samples, at least, had dark hair and eyes. That makes sense given that the Yamnaya and Catacomb samples were darker.

I still think it's the combination of latitude and the Neolithic diet, which was very low in Vitamin D. They made a big mistake with so many of them eschewing fish.
Non si fa il proprio dovere perchè qualcuno ci dica grazie, lo si fa per principio, per se stessi, per la propria dignità . Oriana Fallaci