What is the name of the pigment found in
skin?
Describe where melanin is found in the skin.
What is the difference between a melanocyte
and melanin?
How does melanin help to determine a
person’s skin color?
What are the two different types of melanin,
and how do they affect the appearance of a
person’s skin color?
What is an adaptation? Why do species adapt
over time?
What is a fitness advantage?
Give an example of an adaptation that could
be seen in a fly that could give it an
advantage.
Would you expect a person who is a native of
Greenland (a country above the Atlantic
Ocean, close to the Arctic Circle) to have
more eumelanin or more pheomelanin?
Why?
What is one possible explanation for why
humans from different regions of the world
have different skin colors?
What evidence is there to support the idea
that species evolve over time? Explain how
the birds in the Galapagos Islands can be
evidence for this theory.
Imagine a scientist wants to study why people
who are indigenous (native) to Australia have
dark skin. What type of data would you
suggest that they collect?
What risks are there for a native Ethiopian
moving to the Netherlands (a country in
northern Europe)? What nutrient deficiencies
could they suffer from?
What risks are there for a native French
person moving to Panama (a Central
American country near the Equator)? What
nutrient deficiencies could they suffer from?
What other diseases could they be at higher
risk of?
When it comes to risk of skin cancer, why is a
person with more melanin at an advantage
over people with lighter skin colors? Explain
what is happening in their cells that puts
them at an advantage.