Albinos

[Lyra Jean]

Maybe this is the wrong forum. I start so few threads.

In my WIP I have a group of people that live completely underground. They have lived underground so long that they think they are the only inhabitants left in the world. So will living underground for generations underground cause people to become albinos?

[Begbie]

No. Genetic makeup results in Albinism. Your underground dwellers would just be very pale.

[LeeFlower]

unless there was some environmental factor selecting for traits associated with albinoism, there's no reason your subterrainean people would be albino.

If albinos would for some reason be more fit to survive in your underground world, than they would be statistically more likely to produce children and pass on the trait (if there were any albinos to begin with). But even then, it would take milennia and/or really enormous selection pressures to make even a sizeable minority of the population albino.

And when I say 'really huge selection pressures,' I mean something that wipes out a huge percentage of the population while leaving the albinos intact (thus making them a larger percentage of the smaller population).

The peppered moth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peppered_moth_evolution) is a good example of natural selection as it applies to pigment.

[Birol]

One thing you might want to look at is some of the research for how and why the different pigmentations came about in modern humans, paying particular attention to theories concerning why lighter skinned individuals are found in the northern climates, where there is less sunlight, and darker skinned individuals are found in the tropics, where there is more sunlight.

[Lyra Jean]

I thought that might be the case. So I'll think of something else for my underground people. My people moved underground because of frequent tornadoes and underground is the safest place to be during a tornado. Albinos would have been cool but if it's not possible then I'm not going to do it.

Thanks for the info.

[James D. Macdonald]

You find albinism and blindness in cave-dwelling creatures because there's no selection pressure in favor of sight or camoflague.

[Mark Lazer]

Well, you might do something with evolution here... Maybe evolution created this albinism, but I don't think it's possible "officially."

[NeuroFizz]

Yes, you could do it. You could have loss of pigmentation and other changes characteristic of cave dwelling animals. Do you have tens of millions of years or so to pull it off in your story's time frame?

Also, use "who" to refer to people, not "that"

...a group of people who...
not
...a group of people that...

[kristie911]

Also, use "who" to refer to people, not "that"

...a group of people who...
not
...a group of people that...

*tweet* Grammar police on patrol! lol

I'm so guilty of using "that" in place of who! Even when I speak. :D

In regards to the albinos, remember, you can do anything you want in your book if you make it believable. Most readers willing suspend belief if a book is well-written. So if you want to make them albinos, you go right ahead and do it. Just give us a reason to believe it!

[Becky Writes]

I would believe that a group of albinos chose to live underground.

[NeuroFizz]

I would believe that a group of albinos chose to live underground.
In this case, you had better research the genetics of albanism to make sure you can produce a group of individuals who all share this same phenotype, and who can maintain it in this closed society.

[NeuroFizz]

[quote=kristie911]*tweet* Grammar police on patrol! lol quote]
I'm so sorry--I normally don't put in grammar corrections, mostly because I'm as guilty as everyone else in this area. However, this is a mistake that is way too pervasive, and it could contribute to a rejection in a query letter or a sample of submitted prose. If anyone wants to have some fun, check out any of my posts and start ticking off the grammatical errors. I'm sure the exercise will provide some interesting examples.

[veinglory]

Darkness will not directly cause albinism. But as it is a recessive trait inbreeding of the population might, and not being exposed to the sun, the albino people would not suffer premature death by skin cancer and would be more likely to have offspring. You could speed this process up with some social norms that consider albinism attractive to make them preferential mates. If the founding population carried this recessive and inbreeding was quite extreme albinism could be the norm within generations not millenia.

[NeuroFizz]

Darkness will not directly cause albinism. But as it is a recessive trait inbreeding of the population might, and not being exposed to the sun, the albino people would not suffer premature death by skin cancer and would be more likely to have offspring. You could speed this process up with some social norms that consider albinism attractive to make them preferential mates. If the founding population carried this recessive and inbreeding was quite extreme albinism could be the norm within generations not millenia.
I think the extremely low normal incidence of albanism in natural populations would prevent such a quick collection, unless there was a purposeful segregation of these individuals at the outset. Of course, in a work of fiction, such a segregation could very well be accomplished by a ruthless ruling class, or the like. Perhaps even through selective breeding or some other fiction-worthy phenomenon.

[veinglory]

Indeed, you would need something to make this a fairly common recessive like most of the people happened to have it and came from a fairly inbred community already--then if there was a carrier who was a very charismatic and promiscuous guy.... you might also have it that some other beneficial trait was linked to albinism causing it to be further selected for.

[CaroGirl]

Albinos also suffer various levels of blindness. Even underground, however, sight is useful for humans, unless they live in total darkness. Poor sight works for moles, but they have whiskers and other compensatory evolutionary traits that make them adept at living underground.