[Previous entry: "How different are human races?"] [Next entry: "Traits of successful minorities: The Jews"]

03/08/2008: "Blue-eyed people share common ancestor"

Researchers at Copenhagen University in Denmark conclude that everyone with blue eyes descends from a single "founder," an ancestor whose genes mutated 6,000 to 10,000 years ago, reports USA Today. Until then, everyone had brown eyes.

Led by geneticist Hans Eiberg, the study began in 1973 when he researched a Danish father with 17 children who carried the gene for both blue and brown eyes. Eventually, Eiberg was able to trace the trait for blue eyes to a specific area near the gene OCA2. Next, the Copenhagen team tested 155 people from Scandinavia, Turkey, Jordan and India, all of whom had blue eyes, to see if they had similar DNA sequences in that gene. They weren't just similar; they were identical.

[ Welcome to the family and remember that even if you have brown eyes, you may have a blue-eyed ancestor as well. ]

http://webcenters.netscape.compuserve.com/news/package.jsp?name=fte/blueeyedpeople/blueeyedpeople