Evolution Activity:
In class on Feb 18 and 21 we talked about the article 'Skin Deep,' by Nina G. Jablonski and George Chaplin, published in 2002 in Scientific American (October 2002). If you missed this discussion, please complete the following activity:
What were some early theories on the causes of variation in human skin pigmentation?
What are the hypotheses of Jablonski and Chapin?
What is the chain of events that they identify as having caused human skin to evolve more and less pigmentation?
What evolutionary drivers do they identify as causing human skin coloration to evolve?
Outline the evidence they provide.
Where does their hypothesis fail? How do they explain failures?