Genetic studies suggest that skin color variation existed before the emergence of modern humans. Genetic variants encoding both light and dark skin pigmentation have been discovered, dating from 300,000 to a million years ago. Some dark skin tones have been discovered to have evolved relatively recently from less pigmented variants. There is a hereditary link between skin pigmentation and hominid admixture. South Asians have the genes of Denisovans, blacks erecus / heidelbergensis, and whites were white as early as the cro-magnon stage, before mixing with Neanderthals