Something had to happen for it to become so common in the Solomon Island population. That something could be due to some advantage of having blonde hair or simple luck. If blonde hair had an advantage, then blondes would have more kids than darker haired people. Over time, their numbers would increase. Alternatively it could be that one of the founding members of the islands happened to have the blonde mutation. Or maybe some catastrophe struck where there were only a few survivors, one of whom happened to have the mutation.
When the island was repopulated from these survivors, blondes would be much more common than before the catastrophe. In both cases, blondes would make up a significant part of the population even without an advantage. So there you have it. All blondes do not share the same blonde ancestor. Blonde hair has appeared at different times and in different ways. By Dr. Barry Starr, Stanford University. One theory for how hair color works Traits spreading through a population Why redheads and blondes aren't going to be dying out anytime soon.
Unlike blue eyed people, not all blondes have the same ancestor. DNA has the instructions for hair color. New traits often appear because of mutation. The Tech Interactive S. Market St.
San Jose, CA The Tech is a registered c 3. Federal ID Its content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of Stanford University or the Department of Genetics. The Tech Interactive. The origin of the gene giving rise to blond hair color has been traced back to the last Ice Age 11, years ago. The extensive study on the genetic mutation was carried out by researchers at three Japanese universities; the research concluded that the genetic mutation occurred around 9, BC, as a result of various environmental and evolutionary factors.
A traditionally accepted explanation cited in the scientific literature for the evolution of light hair points towards the requirement of Vitamin D synthesis and the lower levels of solar radiation associated with northern Europe. The lighter skin tone is linked with the lack of pigmentation; in northern climates, the skin does not need as much protection from the sun.
According to this explanation, the fact that there are higher frequencies of light hair colors in northern latitudes is an evolutionary measure to prevent rickets, a condition caused by low levels of Vitamin D. An alternative theory presented by Canadian anthropologist Peter Frost provides a less complex origin for variations in hair color. Published : 03 May Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:.
Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative. Nature Communications Advanced search. Skip to main content Thank you for visiting nature. Download PDF. Subjects Evolutionary genetics Mutation. Golden locks of dark-skinned Melanesians have different genetic basis to those of Europeans.
The blonde hair of some Solomon Islanders results from a unique gene mutation, not shared by blonde Europeans. Credit: Sean Myles. References 1 Kenny, E. Rights and permissions Reprints and Permissions.
About this article Cite this article Corbyn, Z. Copy to clipboard. Further reading Genome-wide rare variant analysis for thousands of phenotypes in over 70, exomes from two cohorts Elizabeth T. Cirulli , Simon White , Robert W. Read , Gai Elhanan , William J.
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