@article {308945,
	title = {Was skin cancer a selective force for black pigmentation in early hominin evolution?},
	journal = {Proc Biol Sci},
	volume = {281},
	year = {2014},
	note = {http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/281/1781/20132955.full?sid=646a144a-5241-4546-8fd4-66b1086ec0f2},
	month = {2014 Apr 22},
	pages = {20132955},
	abstract = {<p>Melanin provides a crucial filter for solar UV radiation and its genetically determined variation influences both skin pigmentation and risk of cancer. Genetic evidence suggests that the acquisition of a highly stable melanocortin 1 receptor allele promoting black pigmentation arose around the time of savannah colonization by hominins at some 1-2 Ma. The adaptive significance of dark skin is generally believed to be protection from UV damage but the pathologies that might have had a deleterious impact on survival and/or reproductive fitness, though much debated, are uncertain. Here, I suggest that data on age-associated cancer incidence and lethality in albinos living at low latitudes in both Africa and Central America support the contention that skin cancer could have provided a potent selective force for the emergence of black skin in early hominins.</p>},
	keywords = {Albinism, Animals, Biological Evolution, Hominidae, Melanins, Receptor, Melanocortin, Type 1, Selection, Genetic, Skin Neoplasms, Skin Pigmentation},
	issn = {1471-2954},
	doi = {10.1098/rspb.2013.2955},
	url = {http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24573849},
	author = {Greaves, Mel}
}
