The real species of the rainbow nation - Science Festival Review
By Jason Jonathan Joseph

We are not the rainbow nation, according to Prof José Braga, director of bio-anthropology department at the University of Toulouse, France, we are actually the rainbow species. Just as we are able to see parts of the rainbow clearer, bio-anthropologist can deduce the proximity of relation to the rest of the species. Yesterday evening at the Guy Butler theatre at the Monument, Braga elaborated how the Neanderthals and chimpanzees really might not be so far away from us on the spectrum.

“In a species you can, sometimes quite easily distinguish different variations,” says Braga, “and sometime it is not clear to distinguish the boundaries between the different variations.”

Skin tone, Braga explains, can be attributed to the “different kinds of mechanisms that occur during evolution,” says Braga. The adaption of selective environmental pressure, being one of the mechanisms, gives us our different skin tones. Skin closer to the equator produce more melanin, while skin from opposite poles of the world need less, and may have the same skin tone.

Braga explained that the closer a common ancestor shared in lineage, the more similar we may look.

Bio-anthropologists, like Braga, use genetic fragments of fossils to determine where we find ourselves on the spectrum. Braga can then reconstruct the fossils virtually using all sorts of bio-anthropological computing technology. From the virtual reconstructions bio-anthropologists are able to show what the owner of the fossil looked like.

With even just the tiniest bit of fossil Braga is able to reconstruct exactly how our ancestors looked too. Don’t believe it? If you find yourself in the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria, have a look at the bust of Mrs Plet that Braga helped, the artist, Elisabeth Daynès bring to life. You might even recognise a step aunt, twice removed, from your father’s side…