seems like I'm always having to explain against some ol group think 9th grade science drone shyt up in here.
This stuff you all are saying about some loose assumptions about the Original Man being Pink; can't be tested or proven , etc.... is a wild guess At Best.
Especially if humans started off on the continent of Africa --
Why would we even develop light skin when that is harmful in Every Way to our survival? That wouldn't make evolutionary sense.. to go through ALL these millions of years of development stages and come out as a pink homo sapiens that are susceptible to the harmful UV rays with skin that is the least likely the protect our DNA?!?
Modern humans popped up like 200K ago.. This supposed 'change' from light to dark so called because of hair loss happened over 1 million years ago - AND in any regard ------- The skin color on Humans ( dark) is considered a positive selection... not neutral or anything... 100% positive.
We assume why we lose hair-- we say its because of the hot weather when we moved from tree living......

Well then what about the animals that kept their hair and still manage to keep cool??
We say we had light skin before we lost the hair

------- but we do not know that to be true. All humans have the same number of melanin cells.... it's just that some humans have cells that produce more amounts of it.
We base all this on the fact that Modern Chimps have light skin with hair. But this is still assumption about humans....
all we know of is dark skinned humans... we don't' know of any light skin humans until only a few thousand years ago when the genetic mistakes popped off.
Think about how tough it is for humans to produce in large numbers.. especially the harsh environments we had back then when we didn't know shyt about shyt.... Basic science claims that for all animals the goal is to not waste energy and food and to reproduce.. everything about Melanin helps with that. The development of lighter skinned humans seems counterproductive by definition. lacking in folic acid causes fertility problems in men, problems during pregnancy , prone to cancers, and less energy for survival.
Why humans became naked apes is still a mystery. (according to BBC) Period. All we know is there are forced theories about hair lose relating to skin color. But we don't know it was because we were too hot to have hair.... That's not always the reason...
Whales lost their hair so they could move faster, some land animals lost their hair because of what they ate provided so much fat they didn't need it to keep warm......... etc.
We are an advanced species...... so why only believe in the loose theories that don't make sense - but not mention the ones that do make sense?