What is the origin of blonde hair? And why did it develop in the first place
Now, only around 2% of the world's population has naturally blonde hair and it is found most commonly in northern Europe and people who have
ancestry that connects to Europe. But it is also found across the world from North Africa to Asia
And it is even found amongst the native populations and places such as Fiji and the Solomon Islands
But why is this? Why does around 10% of the native population of the Solomon Islands have naturally blonde hair
Well, more than that later in general, human hair color is caused by varying amounts of two types of melanin e melanin and fear melanin
Broadly speaking, the more melanin present, the darker the hair are its tone depends on the ratio of black or brown e melanin to yellow
or red. The melanin people with blonde hair can have almost any proportion of the melanin and new melanin
but they only have small amounts of both levels of melanin can vary over time causing a person's hair to change color throughout their life
getting a lot of sun during the summer can also cause people with blonde hair to appear more blonde
I know my hair certainly lightens in the summer. Now, the genetics of hair color is pretty complicated and we're still fairly chat to map
and work out the exact mechanisms involved. We do know that there are at least 100 and 24 genes that play a significant role in
determining human hair color variation. Even within the blonde category, there are obviously many different shades of blonde from ash blonde to shary blonde
with the latter being close to my hair color. What hair color do you have out of interest
Please let me know in the comments below. Now, in Europe, at least it does seem that women are more likely to be naturally blonde
than men. A 2018 study found that women of European descent are twice as likely to be naturally blonde as it seems that women are
more likely to keep their blonde genes throughout their life. Yet men lose them for some reason
Now, why is this the case? Well, although it's unclear exactly what the mechanism is
There are a few theories. One theory argues that it's more of an evolutionary mechanism
The blonde women are more likely to attract men and men are more likely to be successful with women if they have dark hair
Another theory is to do with hormones studies and may suggest that certain chemicals as well as stress and hormone changes could affect the way
some of the pigment genes work. And this change could be more common in men
But again, these are just theories. I should not. Well that various ancient cultures associated blonde hair with vitality and beauty
Aphrodite. The ancient Greek goddess of love and beauty was described as having blonde hair and Homers
The Elliot was the movies. Roy is based on, with Brad Pitt. Homer presented the mythological hero Achilles as the ideal male
warrior, handsome, tall, strong and blonde. I should note as well that the Romans associated blondness with the Celts and the Germanic peoples to the
north. But what are the origins of blonde hair? Well, ancient DNA ysis has revealed that the oldest fossil known to carry the mutated allele
rs 12821256 of the kitlg gene which is responsible for here and modern Europeans as a 17,000
year old ancient North Eurasian specimen from Southern Siberia. More specifically, the remains were from a complex of archaeological sites known as
the Afon Tova Gora. The blonde delay was found in a site known as Aon Tova Gora three where archaeologists found the remains of two
different females, the atlas of an adult female and the mandible and five lower teeth of a teenage girl estimated to be around 14 to
15 years old. It seems that this blonde deli entered Europe by way of a massive population migration from the step area by the people
who had substantial ancient North Eurasian ancestry. This migration was probably led by Easter and hunter gatherers who carried this allele with three
Easter and hunter Gers from Sweden, Russia and Ukraine. All having this allele associated with blonde hair
As detailed in the supplementary information of a study on the genomic history of southeastern Europe
Now, I should note a few other important points at this stage. Blot also seemed to be a feature of some of the tran basin
mummies found in Western, in China. Well, a 2021 study that looked at the genomic origins of these mummies found that the majority of their
ancestry was ancient North Eurasian and connected to the Aon Tova Gora site indicating that these Taro mummies were people who migrated south from
Siberia into modern China. Now, I should not as well that many scholars used to initially believe that the Yamaya culture
a culture of previously made videos on that was instrumental in spreading step related ancestry into Europe was also instrumental in spreading the traits of
blonde hair and blue eyes into Europe. It seems this wasn't the case
However, a 2020 study, for instance, that examined more than 700 ancient genomes found that the Yamaya were mainly brown eyed of intermediate complexion
and brown hair amongst people of the bell beaker culture, however, which was connected to the Yamaya culture but also mixed with the local Neolithic
populations. Europe. It seems beaker people had higher levels of both blue eyes and blonde hair
Now, let's turn their attention to look at why blonde hair ever developed in the first place
What are the theories that explain this? Why do we not just all have brown hair
Why did blonde hair ever develop and why was it selected for over time
Firstly, let's look at the curious case of the Solomon Islands, considering that blonde hair is more common in people of North European ancestry
It's interesting that we see naturally blonde hair and some like the Solomon Islands
a country of over 900 islands set northeast of Australia with around 10% of the Islanders having blonde Afros with little to no variation in
the shade of blonde. Well, a 2012 study looked at this question
The authors first begin by noting how interesting the case of blonde hair in the Solomon Islands is strikingly while individuals from the Solomon Islands
and other locations in Oceania near the equator have both the darkest skin pigmentation outside of Africa
they also have the highest prevalence of blonde hair 5 to 10% outside of Europe
So how can we explain this? Well, it seems that a genetic variation is the reason why blonde hair developed in the Solomon Islands
The authors identified assisting to origin and change a highly conserved residue and Tracy nice related protein one Tyrp one
as the single source of blonde hair and Solomon Islanders. This mice mutation is predicted to impact catalytic activity of the protein and causing blood
here through a recessive mode of inheritance. The novel mutation is a frequency of around 26% in the Solomon Islands but is absent outside of
Oceania and represent the largest genetic effect on a visible human pheno type reported to date
So what this all means is that blonde hair seems to have evolved independently twice in human history
once in Southern Siberia and once again in the Solomon Islands, which is pretty interesting to think that essentially blond hair has evolved completely independently
twice in human history. Now, very quickly before we move on to look at Europe
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Thank you for all your support and now on with the video. So genetics is obviously one major reason why blonde hair developed and in
the Solomon Islands, it is essentially the exclusive reason. The only reason for blonde hair developing in Europe
the picture is a wee bit more complicated. There are probably numerous other selective pressures in Europe as well as obviously a clear genetic component
They mean the blonde hair was selected for over time. One theory is the vitamin D hypothesis in general
It is believed that lighter skin developed as it is more efficient as synthesizing vitamin D from some light due to having lower levels of
melanin. And some argue that lighter hair essentially co evolved with lighter skin
Another theory is around sexual selection. Some argue that blonde hair was selected for over time because blonde hair was considered more attractive
There is probably some truth to this and this fondness of blonde hair seems to go back thousands of years
And the Greco Roman world, for instance, prostitutes would often dye their hair blonde using saffron dyes in order to attract more customers
In Norse mythology, frea a goddess associated with love, beauty, fertility, sex
war and gold was depicted as having long flowing blonde hair. Still today
blonde is generally considered the most popular color for women to dye their hair
So overall, I would say that there's a combination of all these factors that probably meant that in Europe
at least blonde hair evolved over time and was selected for over time
There's obviously the clear genetic component that seems to have originated in Southern Siberia around 17,000 years ago
some sort of genetic variation perhaps before that. But obviously, we've got a sample from 17,000 years ago
And then obviously the eastern and hunter gatherers were probably one of the main vectors that helped the the spread of this blonde little wheel
into Europe. But obviously a selective pressures over time. They said selective pressure
maybe the vitamin D hypothesis as well seem to all combine, that means that obviously blonde hair is so common in Europe today
in the Solomon Islands. It seems to be more of our straightforward picture
This genetic variation that led to blonde hair in the Solomon Islands seems to be the only reason essentially for blonde hair in the Solomon
Islands. Speaking of blonde hair, what is the origin and reason for blue eyes to find out
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