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This may need more research but there is a proposal that when the first humans migrated into Europe from Africa they were dark skinned.

However, in Europe the sunlight is much less, and due to the dark pigment designed to resist the fierce African sun these people did not absorb enough sunlight through their skins to create Vitamin D (which is produced in the skin by the action of light). The result of Vitamin D deficiency is Rickets - bone malformation in children.

Of the original immigrants those with slightly less skin pigment did not suffer so much with Rickets so they survived better and their children were able to survive better. In this way the paler children always survived better and their children who were paler survived better. Over a few generations skin colour lightened until white skins were normal in Europe.

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17y ago

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