News
Mimi Launder
Feb 07, 2018
The first modern Britons, who lived about 10,000 years ago, had 'dark to black' skin, groundbreaking DNA analysis has revealed.
Britain's oldest complete skeleton, Cheddar man, was found over a century ago in Gough's Cave, Somerset.
Initially, he was assumed to have pale skin and light hair. But it turns out that he most likely had blue eyes, a dark brown to black complexion and dark curly hair.
This suggests genes for lighter skin became widespread in European populations far later than originally thought.
With depressing predictably, trolls came crawling out of the woodwork in an anti-science frenzy.
Cheddar Man, who is thought to have died in his twenties, lived in Britain after previous populations had been wiped out before him.
His ancestors migrated to Europe from the Middle East after the Ice Age, and he marked the start of continuous habitation of Britain
Today, about 10 per cent of white Britons are descended from this group.
Depressingly, some of Cheddar Man's descendants are struggling with the entire concept and appear to be actively prejudiced towards their own ancestor.
Their denial has ignited some awful comments:
Meanwhile, this person is suspicious of the scientific agenda (which is to promote truth and facts).
But that's enough of those deeply negative comments.
There were more than enough reasonable people about to discuss the remarkable discovery with a little balance.
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