Everyone in the world with blue eyes is actually kind of related to each other, according to scientists.
Researchers at the University of Copenhagen reckon that the entire blue-eyed population of the planet share a single gene passed down from generation to generation.
Every eye colour is determined by variations in people’s genes, with eye colour directly related to the amount of melanin in the iris’s front layer.
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The HERC2 gene is found in the millions of blue-eyed people around the world.
UniLad reports that everyone with blue eyes is related to a common ancestor who lived between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago.
HERC2 blocks out the OCA2 gene, which everyone has in their eyes, and as a result, turns the eye blue.
OCA2 determines the amount of brown pigment the eye contains and so if it is blocked then the eyes stay a light, pale colour.
The same mutation found in people with HERC2 gets passed down from generation to generation with scientist now certain that this gene has been handed down time and time again originating from one single person.
The Copenhagen team identified the initial mutation and clocked that everyone else with blue eyes also had it.
This means that, if you have blue eyes and are prepared to trace your ancestry far back enough, you are related to everyone else who has the same.
Roughly eight to 10% of the population of the world are thought to have blue eyes.
Other research initially thought that if two parents had blue eyes their kids couldn’t have brown eyes.
This, however, has been found to be untrue by researchers who now think this theory is too simplistic.
In fact, parents with blue eyes can have children with brown eyes.
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