Neanderthals had fair skin, blue or green eyes and light hair

Share Button

DNA tests demonstrated that Neanderthals possessed fair skin, and at least some subspecies had reddish hair too.

Fair tone is at the lightest end of the spectrum and is characterised by a light, porcelain-like appearance due to extremely low levels of melanin. While this type of skin doesn’t tan, it is highly vulnerable to sunburn, even with short bouts of sun exposure.

Neanderthals are believed to have had blue or green eyes, as well as fair skin and light hair. Having spent 300,000 years in northern latitudes, five times longer than Homo sapiens, it is only natural that Neanderthals should have developed these adaptive traits first.

https://www.eupedia.com/europe/neanderthal_facts_and_myths.shtml

Homo sapiens apparently did not inherit the whole light skin, light eyes and light hair package at once, but through continuous interbreeding with various Neanderthal subspecies in Europe, the Middle East and Central over tens of thousands of years. It has been confirmed that Mesolithic (Western) Europeans had blue eyes, but dark skin and dark hair.

Share Button

Add a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.