Human Speciation

[Der_Trihs]

@Broomstick

It seems to make them highly resistant, if not entirely immune, to high altitude pulmonary and cerebral edema. Also less likely to have blood clots at extremely high altitudes, such as on Everest. Tibetan women are able to carry babies to full term at higher altitudes than non-Tibetans, and even at moderately high altitudes their babies tend to have a slightly heavier birthrate and fewer problems breathing thin air.

I’ve also read that they have an altered reflex compared to the rest of us. There’s a reflex that is supposed to operate only once right after birth that expands the blood vessels surrounding the lungs. At high altitudes the low pressure can cause this reflex to activate in reverse, contracting those blood vessels; not good, obviously. That doesn’t happen with Tibetans.

[md2000]

@Enola_Gay

I was in Helsinki once and attended a Laplander festival. I was surprised at the appearance of the people–they didn’t look Scandinavian at all, but rather looked like Asians with blue eyes and lighter hair.

Whether they’re Lap(?) or Chinese or black or Philipino or English, there are those with “Ah-nold” square chins, pointy chins, round chins, big noses, small noses, fat cheeks or not, etc. They don’t “all look the same”.

[Mister_Roboto]

@Enola_Gay

I was in Helsinki once and attended a Laplander festival. I was surprised at the appearance of the people–they didn’t look Scandinavian at all, but rather looked like Asians with blue eyes and lighter hair.

There’s a paper here on their genetics. Maybe you’ll find it interesting.

Abstract:

The Saami are regarded as extreme genetic outliers among European populations. In this study, a high-resolution
phylogenetic analysis of Saami genetic heritage was undertaken in a comprehensive context, through use of maternally
inherited mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and paternally inherited Y-chromosomal variation. DNA variants
present in the Saami were compared with those found in Europe and Siberia, through use of both new and previously
published data from 445 Saami and 17,096 western Eurasian and Siberian mtDNA samples, as well as 127 Saami
and 2,840 western Eurasian and Siberian Y-chromosome samples. It was shown that the “Saami motif” variant of
mtDNA haplogroup U5b is present in a large area outside Scandinavia. A detailed phylogeographic analysis of
one of the predominant Saami mtDNA haplogroups, U5b1b, which also includes the lineages of the “Saami motif,”
was undertaken in 31 populations. The results indicate that the origin of U5b1b, as for the other predominant
Saami haplogroup, V, is most likely in western, rather than eastern, Europe. Furthermore, an additional haplogroup
(H1) spread among the Saami was virtually absent in 781 Samoyed and Ob-Ugric Siberians but was present in
western and central European populations. The Y-chromosomal variety in the Saami is also consistent with their
European ancestry. It suggests that the large genetic separation of the Saami from other Europeans is best explained
by assuming that the Saami are descendants of a narrow, distinctive subset of Europeans. In particular, no evidence
of a significant directional gene flow from extant aboriginal Siberian populations into the haploid gene pools of
the Saami was found.

[John_Mace]

@Mister_Roboto

There’s a paper here on their genetics. Maybe you’ll find it interesting.

Abstract:

And not so oddly, that is the exact cite used in the wikipedia article I quoted, above.

[Ludovic]

@robert_columbia

And, I thought it was well-known that white Europeans were adapted better to survival at higher latitudes because they produce more Vitamin D per unit of sunlight

Altitude, not latitude. If anything, you’d get more sunlight at higher altitudes.

[Broomstick]

Nope, lattitude - while in summer you’d get more hours of sunlight, the UV portion is greatly diminished vs. what you get at the equator, and during the winter you get significantly less light both in hours and quality.

The only northern people who haven’t shown an adaptive lightening of the skin are the Inuit/Eskimo - they (apparently) get such quantities of vitamin D from the massive amounts of fish they eat they don’t need to rely on sunlight to generate the vitamin.