
DNA tests on ancient skeleton reveal First modern Britons had “dark to black” skin - Geekette
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/feb/07/first-modern-britons-dark-black-skin-cheddar-man-dna-analysis-reveals
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alistproducer2
I'm not sure which is more funny: that his name is Cheddar Man, that he looks
like Jerome Jackson, or how butthurt the racists are going to be.

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throwahey
I'm skeptical that this discovery is anything but political. There is far too
much psuedo-science recently pushing the idea of non-whites inhabiting Europe
before whites. I don't understand the goal of such flaky publishings, but the
anti-european sentiment is strong. I'm reminded of the viking with "arabic"
jewelry.

~~~
Geekette
The post clearly describes scientists in related fields using scientific
mechanisms and tools like DNA analysis to make the discovery based on
replicable results. So, I don't see this falls under pseudo-science or "flaky
publishings". As it's also widely accepted that earliest humans started in
Africa then migrated elsewhere, its quite logical the the first arrivals in
Europe would be darkskinned and not surprising that more evidence reflecting
that is found. Nothing political or "anti-European" about that. Only problem I
see is some people possibly having personal issues with identity of their
ancestors, which doesn't change the facts.

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Mikeb85
'Widely accepted', until scientists discovered we're part Neanderthal (among
other homo species), and that all homo species are actually 'human'.

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posterboy
"We" are probably not, or only to a small degree, descendants of this guy,
because Britain was invaded multiple times, but "modern human" definitely
implies common ancestors in "modern" paleohistory. The neanderthal genetics
don't matter so much as the loss of pigmentation is thought to happen fairly
quickly anyway.

If this appears like pseudo science, then because little is known and
assumptions have to be made. For example they can't extract a full genome. But
it is a game of probabilities and statistics. In absence of harder criteria,
this is likely the most probable theory, therefore it is worth to be
discussed.

Likewise, I am not sure how far and quickly was travel at the time or how far
the ice had receded 10 kya, but its fair to assume they had fire and ships.
Also the isles were connected to continental Europe at the time via
doggerland. Maybe they were into timber trade or followed the big game like
woolly Mammoths, which are attested 14 kya, or worse taken as slaves or
otherwise driven by competing populations.

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gricardo99
>for example they can't extract a full genome.

The article says that they did:

"...the ancient skull to obtain a few milligrams of bone powder. From this,
they were able to extract a full genome,"

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Mikeb85
> However, Cheddar Man had “ancestral” versions of all these genes, strongly
> _suggesting_ he would have had “dark to black” skin tone, but combined with
> blue eyes.

That's a pretty big assumption to make and reeks of pseudoscience.

Edit, more assumptions here:

> The results pointed to a Middle Eastern origin for Cheddar Man, suggesting
> that his ancestors would have left Africa, moved into the Middle East and
> later headed west into Europe,

Middle Eastern origin dating to the Neolithic, but they assume he had to have
recently migrated from Africa, despite the fact that complex societies were
developing in the Middle East during the time period described, and those
populations were distinctly Eurasian.

So multiple 'assumptions', both of which are at best a stretch, to push this
agenda. If his origin is indeed Middle Eastern who's to say he's not from
Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Iran or even the Caucasus? The only 'proof' of African
origin is that he's Middle Eastern...

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Real_S
Yes, the assumptions they have made to draw their conclusions are highly
suspect, especially considering that we have a limited understanding of the
genetics of pigmentation. Looks like they are overstretching. My suspicion is
that this individual was at least somewhat lighter-skinned than depicted in
their recreation. Have you ever seen someone with blue eyes and very dark
skin? They exist, but are rare.

But this is just a hunch. My opinion here is not conclusive because they have
not released any methods or data. Why not? From the wiki on Cheddar Man, looks
like they may have had DNA contamination issues in the past:

"The 1996 results were not subjected to peer review and it was suggested that
the sequence was from contaminating modern DNA."

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheddar_Man#DNA_testing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheddar_Man#DNA_testing)

Ancient DNA analyses and quantitative predictions are both very difficult, so
their results should be considered suspect until actual methods and data are
made available.

