Why do Humans Have Different Skin Colors? Exploring the Evolutionary Migration of Melanin and the Sun

BEKASI URBAN – How many types of skin color do you know? Two, Three, Four? Why are human skin colors different and how many human skin tones are there?

Let’s find out the answer here. Before we start, did you know that modern humans or homo sapiens used to have the same skin color, that is, all of them had dark skin. Wait, how come? Then why is the skin color so different now?

The key lies in the evolutionary migration of melanin and the sun. When exposed to excess sunlight, the skin starts to burn and the DNA in the skin becomes damaged. If the damage is severe and occurs continuously, skin cancer can occur.

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Currently we are lucky to have sunblock that protects us from the dangers of excess sun exposure. However, human ancestors at that time did not have sunblock.

Then how can they survive the effects of excess UV rays? The answer is with natural sunblock, namely melanin.

Melanin so produced by melanocytes in the skin served as a shield against sunlight 280,000 years ago. Homo sapiens lived on the African continent because of the position where they lived on the equator.

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The level of radiation and exposure to UV rays is very high as a form of self-protection, they produce a lot of melanin so that their skin color becomes dark. Then 50,000 years ago Homo sapiens began to migrate to various parts of the world.

At this point, Homo sapiens had to adapt again to the conditions of his new home for those who migrated to the polar regions and Europe.

They are not exposed to enough sunlight because their bodies are accustomed to producing large amounts of melanin, which blocks the absorption of sunlight.

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They suffer from vitamin D deficiency which weakens the bones to be able to form vitamin D.

The human body needs UV rays. This causes the body to evolve again to reduce melanin production and change the structure of melanin so that the skin color becomes lighter and can absorb more UV rays.

Likewise with those who migrated to Asia, the skin color of Homo sapiens changed along with evolution and adaptation to a new environment and then continued to be passed down to the present. The amount of melanin that the body produces from exposure to UV rays, environmental genes and pigments present in the skin.