The Biology of Human Skin Color

What does this image represent?

• weather conditions

• amount of ultraviolet light intensity

• skin color

• altitude

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Melanin protects

• Vitamin D breakdown

• Folate breakdown

• DNA mutations

• Bones from breakdown

Traveling away from the equator, what happens in general to the amount of UV intensity?

• The intensity decreases.

• The intensity increases

• The intensity stays the same.

• It is impossible to predict.

Who would be most at risk of developing rickets, a bone disease caused by insufficient calcium absorption?

• Children born to mothers with dark skin living far from the equator.

• Adults with dark skin who live close to the equator.

• Children born to mothers with light skin, living close to the equator.

• Adults with light skin who live close to the equator.

• Anyone who eats a diet that includes a lot of fish

Your skin color is determined by your

• Genetic Inheritance 
• Environmental factors
• Culture
• None of the above

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What is melanin?

• A protein pigment that absorbs and reflects light
• A protein that is waterproof and tough
• A cell found in the epidermis
• A vitamin that helps you sleep

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What kind of cells create melanin?

• Keratinocyte
• Melanocyte
• Leukocyte
• Erythrocyte

What are the two types of melanin?

• Light melanin and dark melanin
• Eumelanin and Dysmelanin
• Eumelanin and Pheomelanin
• All of the above

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Different tones of human skin color evolved 

• in response to varying levels of UV radiation in the environment
• Randomly and for no reason at all

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Melanin protects us from UV radiation by

• preventing our DNA from being scrambled
• preventing Folate in our blood stream to be broken down
• All of the these
• none of these