January 30, 2008
Blue eyes have a common ancestor
From PhysOrg, via Fairyshaman:
Blue-eyed humans have a single, common ancestor
New research shows that people with blue eyes have a single, common ancestor. A team at the University of Copenhagen have tracked down a genetic mutation which took place 6-10,000 years ago and is the cause of the eye colour of all blue-eyed humans alive on the planet today.
Posted by bug to Science at January 30, 2008 4:26 PM
I never understand why "X has a common ancestor" is used as a headline. Isn't it commonly believed that all life on the planet has a common ancestor? It's just a matter of when.
It seems that the interesting bit here is the determination that the blue-eyed mutation occurred only once in humans, not multiple times, and it was in the relatively recent past. As I understand it, genetic techiques estimate that all humans have a common male ancestor who lived 40-50,000 years ago, so this is a bit more recent than that.
Posted by: Rawhide at January 30, 2008 7:29 PM