Why do somalis have such big foreheads?
The easy answer would be to say it's an adaptation of the heat, but that doesn't make any sense as other desert groups outside of Africa don't share this adaptation, such as the Cochimi people
Meet the Fulani people.
On first glance you might assume they are Somali. Bronze skin, lanky bodies and the iconic forehead.
But they have nothing in common with somalis. They are over 75% west African.
The Somali pheno must have evolved more then once
Anthropologist Jean Hirenaux had this idea too, and called these groups of people "Elongated Africans"
Every single one of these people groups share the 'somali' look.
Afar people
But these people do all share one thing in common, their dependence on domestic animals and milk.
These African pastoralists have a diet with a shitton of milk. So much so that they have lactose tolerance levels only exceeded by western euros
There is one thing that can explain all of this.
Bahima Disease.
In 1962 doctors in Uganda started seeing an increase of iron deficiency and swollen foreheads in the bahima people
After ruling out sickle cell and malaria, they realized the culprit was an iron deficiency caused by drinking too much milk early in life
The reason why milk would cause this is because not only is it low in iron calcium actively interferes with iron metabolism, causing a milk anemia
Calcium and iron absorption--mechanisms and public health relevance - PubMed
Studies on human subjects have shown that calcium (Ca) can inhibit iron (Fe) absorption, regardless of whether it is given as Ca salts or in dairy products. This has caused concern as increased Ca intake commonly is recommended for children and women, the same populations that are at risk of Fe...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Milk anemia is talked about as if it only happens to children, since they are the only group of people that would drink so much milk. But the Somali drinks upwards of 5 LITERS A DAY.
Now, you may be asking, why didn't somalis just evolve more iron stores to combat this?
The problem is malaria, which is closely linked to iron.
The adverse effect of iron repletion on the course of certain infections - PubMed
The incidence of infections was studied in 137 iron-deficient Somali nomads, 67 of whom were treated with placebo and 71 with iron. Seven episodes of infection occurred in the placebo group and 36 in the group treated with iron; these 36 episodes included activation of pre-existing malaria...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
So there you have it.
MILK + MALARIA + HEAT = SOMALI LOOK
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