Editing Melanin (section)

===Evolutionary origins===
[[Early humans]] evolved dark skin color, as an adaptation to a loss of body hair that increased the effects of UV radiation. Before the development of hairlessness, early humans might have had light skin underneath their fur, similar to that found in other [[primate]]s.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wade |first=Nicholas |date=19 August 2003 |title=Why Humans and Their Fur Parted Ways |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/19/science/why-humans-and-their-fur-parted-ways.html |access-date=24 August 2019 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=18 June 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090618134300/http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/19/science/why-humans-and-their-fur-parted-ways.html |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Anatomically modern humans]] evolved in Africa between 200,000 and 100,000 years ago,<ref>{{Cite journal |vauthors=Tishkoff SA, Reed FA, Friedlaender FR, etal |date=May 2009 |title=The genetic structure and history of Africans and African Americans |journal=Science |volume=324 |issue=5930 |pages=1035–44 |bibcode=2009Sci...324.1035T |doi=10.1126/science.1172257 |pmc=2947357 |pmid=19407144}}</ref> and then populated the rest of the world through migration between 80,000 and 50,000 years ago, in some areas [[Archaic human admixture with modern humans|interbreeding]] with certain [[archaic human]] species ([[Neanderthals]], [[Denisovans]], and possibly others).<ref>{{Cite news |date=22 September 2016 |title=A Single Migration From Africa Populated the World, Studies Find |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/22/science/ancient-dna-human-history.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=2 March 2017 |archive-date=2 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190502133043/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/22/science/ancient-dna-human-history.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The first modern humans had darker skin as the indigenous people of Africa today. Following migration and settlement in Asia and Europe, the selective pressure dark UV-radiation protecting skin decreased where radiation from the sun was less intense. This resulted in the current range of human skin color. Of the two common gene variants known to be associated with pale human skin, ''[[Mc1r]]'' does not appear to have undergone positive selection,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Harding |first1=Rosalind M. |last2=Healy |first2=Eugene |last3=Ray |first3=Amanda J. |last4=Ellis |first4=Nichola S. |last5=Flanagan |first5=Niamh |last6=Todd |first6=Carol |last7=Dixon |first7=Craig |last8=Sajantila |first8=Antti |last9=Jackson |first9=Ian J. |last10=Birch-Machin |first10=Mark A. |last11=Rees |first11=Jonathan L. |date=April 2000 |title=Evidence for Variable Selective Pressures at MC1R |journal=The American Journal of Human Genetics |language=en |volume=66 |issue=4 |pages=1351–1361 |doi=10.1086/302863 |pmc=1288200 |pmid=10733465}}</ref> while ''[[SLC24A5]]'' has undergone positive selection.<ref>{{Cite journal |vauthors=Lamason RL, Mohideen MA, Mest JR, etal |date=December 2005 |title=SLC24A5, a putative cation exchanger, affects pigmentation in zebrafish and humans |journal=Science |volume=310 |issue=5755 |pages=1782–6 |bibcode=2005Sci...310.1782L |doi=10.1126/science.1116238 |pmid=16357253 |s2cid=2245002}}</ref>