European humans have become "whiter" in the past 5,000 years, undergoing a distinct change in their DNA due to natural selection, according to scientists.
In research published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, experts analysed DNA taken from ancient skeletons and compared it with the current European human genome.
Teams from University College London and Mainz found that there were striking differences over time in the genes which are associated with hair, skin and eye pigmentation.
Sandra Wilde, the lead report author from Mainz's Johannes Gutenberg University, told Science Daily: "Prehistoric Europeans in the region we studied would have been consistently darker than their descendants today.
"This is particularly interesting as the darker phenotype seems to have been preferred by evolution over hundreds of thousands of years. All our early ancestors were more darkly pigmented."