Scottish DNA & The Evolution of Red Hair…

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Scottish DNA & The Evolution of Red Hair…

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:26 Cause and Inheritance of Red Hair
1:16 Origin of Red Hair & Neanderthals
3:46 Get Member-Only Videos
4:07 Why is Red Hair So Common in Scotland?

Look at this table… These are the countries with the most people with natural red hair in the world. As you can see, Scotland is number 1, with between 10-13% of Scots having this color. Yet globally, red hair is the rarest hair color in the world, found in only 1-2% of people. So why do so many Scottish people have red hair? Has this always been the case? And did red hair originate in Scotland?

Now we know that red hair is mainly caused by mutations in the MC1R gene, located on chromosome 16. And to actually express this trait, you must inherit one copy of this MC1R variant from each parent, as its a recessive trait. Yet that doesn’t mean that people need to have red hair expressed themselves for them to have a red-haired child, as many people silently carry this MC1R mutation. And we know this is the case in Scotland. As around 40% of the Scottish population carry the red hair gene variant, much higher than the frequency of red hair of 10-13%. We also know that people with red hair also tend to have fair skin, freckles, light eyes, and heightened sensitivity to UV light in general, although this can vary.

But did red hair originate in Scotland and is it connected to the Neanderthals at all? Well we know that this hair color has been a feature in these lands for millennia. The Roman historian, Tacitus, for instance, wrote in the 1st century AD about the physical characteristics of the Caledonians, one of the main peoples of ancient Scotland. He wrote that:
“The red hair and the large limbs of the inhabitants of Caledonia proclaim their Germanic origin.”

So red hair was a noted feature in ancient Scotland at the time of the Romans around 2,000 years ago. Yet the origin of red hair was not in ancient Scotland. It is far older and broader than any one country in general, but it probably wasn’t even in Europe. The most likely location was in Central Asia, with this mutation arising tens of thousands of years ago. And we do see elevated levels of red hair in some peoples of this region, with the Udmurt people in Russia a famous example of this today. Down through history as well, we see groups from this part of the world with this trait. The Budini for instance, who were an ancient Scythian tribe for this region, were known for their red hair, as described by Herodotus. And what is interesting is that there are various references to Scythia in the origin stories of both the Scots and Picts, which is curious. Let me know in the comments below if you would like a specific video on that.

But how do the Neanderthals fit into all of this? Did we inherit this trait from our ancient human cousins? Well we do know that the Neanderthals had their own version of an MC1R mutation that caused red hair and pale skin. A 2017 study published in The American Journal of Human Genetics found that none of the variants that cause red hair in modern humans were present in Neanderthal samples however, but they had their own variants that causes red hair in rare causes. In other words, we didn’t inherit red hair from our human cousins.

Sources:

The Contribution of Neanderthals to Phenotypic Variation in Modern Humans - Dannemann, Michael et al. The American Journal of Human Genetics, Volume 101, Issue 4, 578 – 589 - The Contribution of Neanderthals to Phenotypic Variation in Modern Humans: The American Journal of Human Genetics

DNA reveals Neanderthal redheads — Harvard Gazette

Red hair - Wikipedia

Percentage of Redheads by Country 2025

Who were the lost Beaker People of Scotland?

Transcription of the Declaration of Arbroath - National Records of Scotland (NRS)

Scottish Genetic Landscape Echoes the DNA of Past Kingdoms | Generation Scotland | Generation Scotland

E. Gilbert, et al. The genetic landscape of Scotland and the Isles, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 116 (38) 19064-19070, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1904761116 (2019).

The people with the reddest hair in the world - BBC News

Ruairdh : Meaning and Origin of First Name | Search Family History on Ancestry®.

Scottish DNA: What is the Genetic History of Scotland?

The genetic causes, ethnic origins and history of red hair - Eupedia

Creative Commons Imagery:

SKIBLY101 File:DF13 EUROPE.png - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International - Creative Commons

red hair origins - Scottish ancestry - ginger - redhead - Scottish heritage

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