Scientists Reveal The Rise and Fall of Blue Eye Color in Modern Humans

Countless songs and poems reference people with blue eyes, whether they are seen as a mark of beauty, a symbol of sadness.Countless songs and poems reference people with blue eyes, whether they are seen as a mark of beauty, a symbol of sadness.A unique archaeological discovery in 2006, researchers unearthed the world's oldest confirmed blue-eyed individual, dating back approximately 7,000 years.This discovery helped to validate theories about the familial relationship among nearly all blue-eyed people.This video will explore the genetic origins of blue eyes in humans, the spread of the blue-eyed gene, and the future of this genetic trait.

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[fridocalifornia]

My great-grandfather from Algeria had blue eyes, and his wife from Martinique (black and European) had brown eyes. All the children had blue eyes, but two had one blue and one brown.

[comfortablynumb]

My niece is a mix of Euro and Native American blood, and she has brown eyes. Her husband is black, and fairly dark, with brown eyes. Their daughter has blue eyes. I have blue eyes, so do my uncles on dad's side. And her husband has an uncle with dark skin and blue eyes. So blue eyes are recessive in her family and his and their daughter is quite rare. Her skin is fairly light too. It's fascinating how genes express themselves.

[joyrod]

My father had very light blue eyes, while my mother very dark eyes. I came up in between with green hazel eyes.

[yorkshirepudding]

Imagine being the first person with blue eyes!

[spmoran]

My mother was the traditional blue eyed blond . She was a myth buster . Although some of her ancestors were Central European . There was much Celtic origins and Jewish in her heritage . Yes a definate myth buster.

[tinathelasttwenty]

Green eyes, awaiting the next eye color video 💚💚

[truxlee]

Just to kick it up a notch, 1930s cinema actress Deanna Durbin had one blue eye and one green eye.

[urseliusurgel]

I'm sorry, but Haak et al.'s Nature paper showed that 100% of all Western and Central European Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) ancient remains had blue eye alleles, this predated the Neolithic and the influx of Anatolian farmers. The Neolithic farmers and the later Yamnaya Steppe pastoralists introduced a higher incidence of brown eye alleles into western and central Europe.

It has also been shown that 'unusually coloured' eyes are found more attractive, rather than one particular eye colour. In advertisements in Brasil there are proportionally far more blue-eyed models than are found in the Brasilian population, while in the UK, brown-eyed models are at a higher incidence than is found in the UK population as a whole.

[marktristanviguri]

Neanderthals had blues eyes. ALL European hunter gathers including the old human found in the video and European Neanderthals had blue eyes. Neanderthals were around 300, 000 - 40, 000 years ago.

[Peleski]

I always thought the old genetic explanation was dodgy, because in my family 5 of 6 children are blue, from blue and brown eyed parents.

[Sowhat]

I like the use of late 19th and early 20th century art in this video.

[Gizathecat]

My mother had eyes so dark it difficult to see her pupils at times. My father had blue eyes. My maternal grandmother had green eyes and my maternal grandfather had very dark eyes. I have blue-green eyes! My sister ended up with grey eyes. A few years ago I met some cousins in Germany who have the bluest of blue eyes. This family is related to my paternal grandfather.

[Dan-pvoq]

I find it difficult to believe 50% of Americans had blue eyes in 2000. What source is used for this statement?

[davidpowell]

What about eyes that appear greyish or slight traces of brown around the pupil but with most of the iris blue? Also what some people call "green" eyes ?
Is there any vision advantage or disadvantage conferred by eye color in humans?

[robertfindley]

Women _adore_ blue eyes. It's a huge plus for a man trying to date. And eye color is the first thing they look for when they meet someone's new baby. So as long as the female of the species can see, blue eyes will always be in our gene pool.

[calvanoni]

simple mutations can be very common, probably happened a whole bunch with eye colors, causing not just blue?

[zaraw]

I was always curious as to why my eyes took so long to decide what color they wanted tp be. Because when I was in the single digits my eyes kept changing color until I turned 10 & they settled on forest green with gold streaks around my pupil & 2 brown blotches in the left eye...lol ... My mom had pale grey eyes & she told me my (genetic donor) had lighter green eyes than me. I used to be jealous of all the shades of blue eyes that I saw in the family, because all her siblings had blue eyes & her parent did as well, but after I learned to love my eyes for what they are & also learned that my blotches in my left eye are a mild heterochromia & that's neat as well...TeeHee

[urseliusurgel]

A person carrying one compliment of blue eye alleles and one compliment of brown eye alleles will be brown eyed, BUT is also a descendant of the original person with the blue eye mutations. You actually explain this then make an erroneous or incomplete statement. Also some people with a full compliment of brown eye alleles may also be a descendant of the originator of blue eye alleles, if they have any ancestor who had these alleles. Ancestry, and having a particular genetic composition are not the same things. Imagine siblings, one with Brown Brown and the other with blue blue alleles, they have exactly the same ancestry.

[sushibar]

What about other eye colors than brown, blue, or green? For example, gray and hazel? Also, some people with brown eyes have a light brown, in some cases amber coloring, while other are deep brown, verging almost on back.

[calvanoni]

I have central heterochromia one of the rarest eye colors that a combo of colors, most would say hazel, but my eye color can shift, & contains a band of blue. One of my kids has ice blue eyes the other hazel.