An abundance of clinical and epidemiological evidence supports that light skin pigmentation developed due to the importance of maintaining vitamin D3 production in the skin.[15] As a consequence, there must have been a strong selective pressure for the evolution of light skin in areas of low UV radiation.[2] The evidence that dark skin evolved as a protection against the effect of UV radiation is overwhelming, and research shows that eumelanin protects against both folate depletion and direct damage to DNA.