Would he have had a modern skin tone? If hes over 200k old, wouldnt he be more beige than today's modern dark brown?
Maybe I'm wrong but I thought skin pigment evolved over subsequent generations. I dont like the implication# that dark skin is "prehistoric" and light skin is more "modern"
It is, believe it or not. Lighter skin color evolved (extremely slowly) in areas with cooler weather. Africa is where all hominids originate and of course, skin would be darker in a hotter, humid environment. The different "races" we currently have now would've been fully evolved by 5000 BCE and would take another few thousand years to change.
If you ever noticed, generally, the blackest people live in the Tropics (sub-saharan Africa and southern parts of South and Southeast Asia and Oceania), brownish people live in desert and savanna areas (Middle East, parts of North Africa, Southern Europe, northern parts of South Asia, western parts of East Asia), yellowish people from cooler but not quite cold subtropical areas ( central parts of East Asia, northern parts of Southeast Asia) and the palest people in cold climates (Northern Europe and the northern part of East Asia)
The Americas were settled by the brownish and yellowish people from Asia and of course admixture affected SE Asia and North Africa.
I don't see as an insult that black skin was the oldest color but I see it as prideful that we are basically the parents of the world