Britain’s Prince Harry may have done more to boost the profile of redheads than he has for the royals (Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
The world is going ginger as humans continue to evolve – into redheads, according to scientists.
A groundbreaking new study has revealed that the number of people with flame-coloured hair is on the rise. Until recently, many scientists believed that humans had made little evolutionary progress over the past 10,000 years.
However, fresh DNA analysis of 15,836 ancient human remains conducted by researchers at Harvard University, US, has suggested that not only are people evolving at a remarkable pace, but they are increasingly becoming redheads.
The study, published in scientific journal Nature, said: “Perhaps having red hair was beneficial 4,000 years ago, or perhaps it came along for the ride with a more important trait.”
Despite often being the target of ridicule, red hair has traditionally been linked to strength and vitality. In Hawaii, Polynesians with red hair are believed to be descendants of fire gods. Research has shown that redheads are more sensitive to hot and cold temperatures, and a single strand of red hair is typically thicker than other shades.
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Redheads do, however, have fewer strands of hair, averaging around 90,000 compared to a blonde’s 110,000 and a brunette’s 140,000. They also produce more Vitamin D in a shorter period of time than those with other hair colours.
Meanwhile, a 2022 study discovered that redheaded women are more sexually active, have greater desire and a larger number of partners than others, and have sex at least one more time per week than the rest of the population. Redheads are also proving increasingly popular in the world of advertising. Research has revealed that 30% of TV commercials broadcast during prime time feature a ginger-haired individual.
Ed Sheeran has described his ginger hair as a ‘superpower’ that has boosted his music career, while Elizabeth I, a natural redhead, wore red wigs to conceal her grey hair in later life. Prince Harry has embraced his distinctive colouring, joking that the ‘ginger gene is a strong one’.
Guardians Of The Galaxy star Karen Gillan takes great pride in her natural red hair and has expressed her desire to have ‘ginger children’.
The groundbreaking new study brought together more than 250 archaeologists and anthropologists to construct a database of DNA collected from 10,016 ancient burial sites across Europe and Asia.
Ed Sheeran is one of the most famous red heads to come out of the UK in recent times (Image: undefined)
This data was then combined with the genomic sequences of an additional 5,820 ancient individuals and 6,438 modern humans, including information drawn from the UK Biobank.
By scrutinising millions of genetic variants, scientists were able to monitor how frequently specific variants emerged throughout history.
Researchers pinpointed 479 genes whose rate of increase or decrease was ‘greater than can be expected by chance’ — strongly indicating that natural selection was at work.
The study examines the period following the last major Ice Age, when human beings transitioned from hunter-gatherers to farmers, laying the foundations of the earliest human civilisations.
The researchers suggested that natural selection may have accelerated during this period ‘because of rapidly changing lifestyles and economies’.
Additional traits favoured by evolution include narrower hips and reduced body fat. Genetic variants associated with a brisk walking pace and resistance to leprosy have also been found to be on the rise.
Meanwhile, those linked to male pattern baldness and rheumatoid arthritis are on the decline, the study revealed.
Karen Gillan attends the Los Angeles Premiere of Neon’s “The Life Of Chuck” (Image: The Hollywood Reporter via Getty)
Susceptibility to coeliac disease – which occurs when the immune system attacks the small intestine due to a gluten-heavy diet – has increased.
Lead author of the paper, Ali Akbari, said: “Instead of searching for the scars natural selection leaves in present-day genomes we can now watch how selection shaped biology in real time.”
Until now, only 21 instances of modern human evolution had been broadly acknowledged.
These included a mutation that allowed humans who farmed cattle to continue digesting milk into adulthood, while other societies, most notably in East Asia, experience high rates of lactose intolerance.
The researchers now intend to replicate the study across East Asia, East Africa, and Central and South America, in a bid to uncover further genetic variations that could potentially aid disease prevention and open the door to developing new gene therapy treatments.
According to Harvard: “The work demonstrates the power of ancient-DNA research to illuminate human genetic adaptation and other fundamental principles of evolutionary biology.”
