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Evolutionary biology

Geography and skin colour

Nature volume 435, pages 283–284 (2005)Cite this article

Human skin comes in many different shades. Recent studies of geographical differences in skin colour open up the subject scientifically by offering sophisticated accounts of the basis of this variation.

The most obvious — and most discussed — aspect of human geographical variability is skin colour. Most people would say that skin colour becomes darker towards the Equator to give more protection against tropical sunlight. But that claimed correlation of skin colour with latitude is riddled with exceptions, and that functional interpretation of the correlation is debated. Most scientists shy away from the whole subject because it so interests racists, and the motives of scientists studying it become suspect.

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  1. the Department of Geography, University of California, 1255 Bunche Hall, Los Angeles, 90095-1524, California, USA

    Jared Diamond

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  1. Jared Diamond
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Diamond, J. Geography and skin colour. Nature 435, 283–284 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/435283a

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