![]() ![]() Third, attention would now shift toward rarer and more novel colors that had recently appeared by mutation. Second, its novelty would attract attention and increase one’s chances of mating, with the result that the color would become more common in succeeding generations. First, a new color would appear by mutation and be initially rare and novel. Attraction to novelty may explain how the European palette of hair and eye colors came into being. If we look at the hair and eye colors that arose in Europe, we see that they are brighter than the human norm of black hair and brown eyes. This kind of selection favors eye-catching colors that are either bright or novel.īright colors stay in memory longer. Why would a facial feature become more colorful in one sex than in the other? The likeliest reason is sexual selection, which occurs when one sex has to compete for the attention of the other. Furthermore, in both cases, this diversity concerns visible features on or near the face-the focus of visual attention. If hair color and eye color diversified in ways that differ physiologically but are similar visually, then the common purpose of this diversity must be visual. In the case of eye color, women have more of the intermediate hues because the lightest hue (blue) is less easily expressed. In the case of hair color, women have more of the intermediate hues because the darkest hue (black) is less easily expressed. While women are more diversely colored in their hair and eyes, this greater diversity has a different cause in each case. Finally, throughout the world, women are fairer-skinned than men, as a result of cutaneous changes at puberty. They are likewise more variable in eye color in those populations where blue eyes are common. Women are naturally more variable than men in hair color, redheads in particular being more common. This color scheme is puzzling in another way: it is stronger in women than in men. Our eyes acquired a similar palette through similar changes at yet another gene. Our hair acquired a diverse palette of colors through a proliferation of new alleles at another gene. Our skin became white mainly through the replacement of one allele by another at three separate genes. Yet the genes are different in each case. How did this color scheme come about? Perhaps the same genes that lighten skin pigmentation also affect hair and eye pigmentation. Is the physical appearance of Europeans solely or even mainly an adaptation to climate?) (ILLUSTRATION: Mary Magdalene, Frederick Sandys (1829-1904). This is particularly the case in northern and eastern Europeans. Europeans are different: their hair is also brown, flaxen, golden, or red, their eyes also blue, gray, hazel, or green, and their skin pale, almost like an albino’s. MOST HUMANS have black hair, brown eyes, and brown skin. ![]()
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