Scotland's Bad Weather Means More Redheads

Cloudier climes allowed trait to gain in population
By Will McCahill,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 13, 2010 10:23 AM CST

The cooler, cloudier climes for northern Europe make for more redheads—particularly in Scotland and Ireland, a researcher says. About 8% of Scots sport a ginger mane, to less than 2% of all Europeans. The theory, Emily Pritchard tells the Times of London, is that genetic traits that allow sun-unfriendly red hair and fair skin didn’t die out as humans moved from Africa northward.
(More redhead stories.)

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