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New research shows that people with blue eyes have a single, common ancestor.
Originally, we all had brown eyes, but a genetic mutation that took place 6-10,000 years ago resulted in the creation of a "switch" that turned off the ability to produce brown eyes.

Variation in the color of the eyes from brown to green depends on the amount of melanin in the iris. Blue-eyed people all have about the same of amount of melanin in their eyes, while the amount of melanin in brown-eyed people varies greatly. "From this we can conclude that all blue-eyed individuals are linked to the same ancestor," says a member of the University of Copenhagen team that announced this finding. "They have all inherited the same switch at exactly the same spot in their DNA."

humans

Websites

• Science Daily
  "Blue-eyed Humans Have A Single, Common Ancestor," Jan. 31, 2008.

Books

• If the world were a village
  a book about the world's people.

Last updated by curious on Aug. 25, 2008

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While the Library has verified the information presented in these files in what it considers to be reliable and authoritative sources, it cannot take responsibility for nor guarantee the accuracy of the information presented.