ANTHROPOLOGY 101 Is Human Eye Color an Adaptive Trait Discussion

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Anthropology 101

Anthropology

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Needs to be a two sided argument about if human eye color is an adaptive trait, why or why not?

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Running head: IS HUMAN EYE COLOR AN ADAPTIVE TRAIT ?

Is Human Eye Color an Adaptive Trait?
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IS HUMAN EYE COLOR AN ADAPTIVE TRAIT?

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Is Human Eye Color an Adaptive Trait?
There are different environments that the different parts of the world offer. Some of
the are favourable for human and other life existence while some others are harsh and
unfriendly. It is, however, essential that life is distributed in all areas. Asa result, the different
climatic and environmental factors make life in the different. Fitting into different climate
regions based on finding a means to avoid the adverse effects of the environment is called
adaptation. Some of the traits that have been associated with adjustment include the
development of webbed feet, claws and behavioural adaptations of animals. The changes take
longer to occur, and the adaptations may take generations to form after exposure to the new
environments. Some of the variations that the humans living in different areas all around the
world include eye and skin pigmentation. This paper is a discussion of why the eye
pigmentation is or is not an adaptation.
Reasons Why Eye Color Is an Adaptation
It is notable that the eyes of different people all over the world have different colours
such as blue, brown or green. The colour of the eyes is most determined by the iris. It
contains colours that range from amber, blue, brown, grey, green, hazel and red (Jablonski,
2018). The most common eye colour is brown and the rarest being green. Several factors
determine the colour of the eyes. One of them is the amount of melanin that is produced by
the individual. The pigment is produced to determine the colour of the skin, eyes and hair.
People who are dark have more melanin produced in their bodies, and vice versa is also
correct. The pigment is produced by cells called melanocytes. The pigment is an adaptation
for protecting the skin against harmful Ultraviolet Rays, as explained below.
The people who live in areas that are associated with the areas of high sunlight
concentration are likely to be affected negatively by the sun rays. Melanin concentration is
seen to range from the very dark (typical in Africa) to yellowish or ink which is common in

IS HUMAN EYE COLOR AN ADAPTIVE TRAIT?

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Northern Europe. The ones in the tropical regions produce more melanin to keep out the sun
rays that they are exposed to in their environment. The fact above does not mean that the
people in Northern Europe do not produce melanin. There are two types of melanin that are
produced; pheomelanin and eumelanin. Eumelanin is brown and black while pheomelanin is
yellowish or pinkish. The people in Africa, therefore, produce eumelanin and those in
Northern Europe produce pheomelanin. The effect of melanin on eye colour is explained
below.
Brown is one of the most common eye colours all over the world, with 55% to 79% of
all the people having such characteristics (Griff, 2019). They contain the most melanin, and
they are adaptive to helping to avoid direct sunlight from reaching the human eyes. Blue eye
is common in Europe, and 8% of the people have them worldwide. Hazel is uncommon with
5% and is common in Europe and the United States (Griff, 2019). The other colours, such as
Gray and amber, are also exhibited in small percentages of people.
According to the theory of adaptation and evolution, all the people had a similar
brown colour since they all needed to avoid the harsh tropical climates. Their eyes were,
therefore, more brown since the melanin produced was in large quantities. Scientists
believed that the people lived in climates that were hot all year round and the brown colour
was a good adaptation for them. It was also common to see the dark Irises in most people. As
they moved further north and south, the rays of the sun were weaker. The amount of
Ultraviolet radiation in such areas reduced significantly. The result was that the people no
longer needed protection from the rays. The eye colour, therefore, got adapted to the
conditions and the eye colour became lighter over generations. The lightening also made it
easy for them to see in the cold and relatively darker winters compared to the environment
that they had previously been used to. Based on the above explanation, eye colour is an
adaptation.

IS HUMAN EYE COLOR AN ADAPTIVE TRAIT?

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Reasons Why Eye Color is Not an Adaptation
Several genes are involved in eye colour. The main gene involved in this process is
OCA2. It is a gene that leads to the production of P-Protein (Lin et al, 2019). It is also called
the melanocyte-specific transporter protein. It is involved in the transport of tyrosine which is
the precursor form of melanin. Its main function is to ensure that the production of the
melanin compound in h...


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