Wiered question about why some people in the north have darker skin that others?

Question

I mean darker skin, as in very small variations in colour, i dont mean how Africans got here.

for example one person would have a little darker skin than another.

my skin for example CAN tan, but not as easy as some peoples, and i wouldnt call myself fair skinned.

also some people have brown scars, and i get white scars (even thought he injury is the same)

why is britain full of people with darker skin than others, wouldnt people all have fair skin because of the thousands of years they lived in england, or is the reason for darker complection due to people from other countries... like asia, or isreal?

gimme some insite people:)

Answer 1

England is an island and has been subjected to invasions.   The Gauls and the Romans were dark skinned so obviously there would be dark skinned people here long before the Africans or Indians came here. Look at the surnames for example and you will see that there are a lot of foreign sounding names well before the second world war.  What about when the French also escaped to England during the revolution?There were the  Romany gypsies also.

Answer 2

There are sizeable minorities of south Asian or Caribbean/African descent.  I assume you are not just talking about these.

Some of the other answers mention factors promoting diversity among the longer-established British. In addition, there are factors (such as differences in resistance to viruses) which tend to maintain variation among a population.

But I'm not sure whether variation among the longer-established British is any greater than in other European countries.  There is a lot of active research being done now comparing DNA of different populations, which should give useful information on these subjects.

Answer 3

The original inhabitants of Britain, and most of Europe for that matter, are long since dead or intermixed with the Germanic invaders from Asia.  They've only been there about 1500 years, and the constant influx of immigrants has a major effect too.

Looking at modern people doesn't give you much information about the original inhabitants of that area.

Answer 4

Pale skin, most probably, is an adaptation to low light conditions. People in a certain part of Asia Minor, because of less light and weaker light, lighter skinned people made more vitamin D than there slightly darker skinned cousins. This inbred because, at that time, there was not too much migration in the area.

Now today. There is not the same driving mechanism as in the past with vitamin D; almost everyone gets the minimal enough. Also, there has been much migration of people, more so in the last couple of centuries than in the past. So the really pale skin traits, the less pale but still pale skin traits, the so-so pale skin traits, the darker traits, etc. are, at least genetically, all mixed up, and it is a genetic c**p shoot which combination a particular person gets. And no compelling driving mechanism to select for or against any of them.

Answer 5

genes? they make diff bodies create different amounts of melanin in the skin...

Answer 6

well from what i was told by my bio teacher, the skin contains a pigment called melanin (or something like that). and the amount of this pigment found in your skin determines how dark your skin is, and the amount of melanin is determined by base sequences in your DNA. hmm...thats all i can remember