Can an acquired physical characteristic be caused by a genetic mutation?SLC24A5 mutation anybody?
Neither, sort of. When people moved up into Eurasia, they encountered a different environment and were subjected to different selective pressures. The most obvious one is the trouble with dark skin and vitamin D, and another one might be the cold winters up north. The first problem was apparently adapted to, as light colored skin allows proper synthesis of vitamin D under those conditions. But it’s not like the gene pool “reacted” as the term is normally understood. One of two things happened. 1) The genetic material for light skin already existed as part of human variation at the time or 2) a mutation occured to produce that trait Light skin is a definite survival advantage in that environment, it seems, so anyone who had it would have been at a survival advantage, meaning their offspring would have been more likely to grow, reproduce, and maybe pass on the light colored skin gene. So the people who already had that light skin trait began to have more offspring. Their traits were prom
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