Eli5: why are carrots orange? I know originally they were another colour, so why orange now
In: Biology
Probably due to selective breeding.
The β-Carotene (orange) pigment was naturally present in carrots (in small quantities) making them yellowish or off- white.
A mutation must have caused the pigment to be more abundant, which our human ancestors might have fancied seeing and made sure to grow the mutated crops over and over.
Like natural selection, this artificial selection favoured the excess of the orange pigment, and so it was.
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