X-Men: The Recent Rise of Pale-Skinned Mutants

A US study out of the Penn State University has found that Europeans' light skin almost certainly stems from a gene mutation from a single person who lived only 10,000 years ago.

Keith Cheng from Penn State College of Medicine discovered that a single amino acid difference in the gene SLC24A5 is the key contributor to the skin color difference between Europeans and West Africans. The mutation, called A111T, is found in virtually everyone of European ancestry, and is also found in populations in the Middle East and Indian subcontinent, but not in high numbers in Africa. Since all individuals from the Middle East, North Africa, East Africa and South India who carry the A111T mutation also share traces of the same ancestral genetic code, researchers believe they all are descended from the same single mutant.