The evolving pigment palette of European skin, eyes and hair as seen through ancient DNA

University of Ferrara researchers in Italy have examined how European skin, eye and hair pigmentation evolved over the past 45,000 years. Findings indicate that lighter pigmentation traits emerged gradually and non-linearly, with dark skin persisting in many populations well into the Copper and Iron Ages. The study used a probabilistic genotype likelihood method to infer pigmentation traits from low-coverage ancient DNA.