Hidden Links Between Eye Color & Ancestry - Hazel, Blue, Brown etc ~ by Celtic History Decoded

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The Hidden Links Between Eye Color & Ancestry… Hazel, Blue, Brown etc.

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:56 Brown Eyes (& Black Eyes?)
2:38 Blue Eyes
5:01 Hazel Eyes
6:11 Amber Eyes
7:22 Green Eyes
9:01 Gray Eyes

What if your eye color holds a secret, passed down through thousands of years of ancestry? From icy blue eyes in Northern Europe to deep hazel tones in Iberia, every shade tells a story. So in this video we are going to explore the fascinating links between ancestry and eye color.

Now this table shows a breakdown of eye colors across the globe. As you can see, brown is by far the most common, at around 70-80% of the worlds population. Depending on the source, either gray or green eyes is considered the rarest eye color on earth. And let me know your eye color and ancestry in the comments below. Now varying levels of melanin is the main driver of your eye color, which is largely driven by genetic mutations in the OCA2 & HERC2 genes. Gender also seems to influence eye color to some degree. Various studies have shown that men are more likely to have blue eyes than women, which could be linked to higher estrogen levels.

Now let’s look at the different eye colors and their ancestral links. First up is brown eyes, the original human eye color. This color is a result of a very high amount of melanin in the iris, a protective pigment that helps shield the eyes from ultraviolet (UV) radiation. From an ancestral perspective, brown eyes have always been advantageous near the equator, most notably in Africa of course. This higher concentration of melanin in brown eyes offers much more protection against intense sunlight than say blue eyes. Now you sometimes see people refer to black eyes, but from a biological perspective, these are typically extremely dark brown. While they may appear black to the naked eye, under strong lighting, they usually reveal brown or reddish tones.

Now look at this table.

Sources:

The World's Population By Eye Color - WorldAtlas

Keyser, C., Bouakaze, C., Crubézy, E. et al. Ancient DNA provides new insights into the history of south Siberian Kurgan people. Hum Genet 126, 395–410 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00439-009-06...

Faith Erin Cain, Kyoko Yamaguchi - Effect of iris pigmentation of blue and brown eyed individuals with European ancestry on ability to see in low light conditions after a short-term dark adaption period Effect of iris pigmentation of blue and brown eyed individuals with European ancestry on ability to see in low light conditions after a short-term dark adaption period | bioRxiv

All About Brown Eyes

What Causes Hazel Eyes?

Blue eyed see better in the dark Blue Eyes | Liverpool John Moores University (ljmu.ac.uk)

Blue Eyes: How Rare Are They? | Warby Parker

Cheddar Man: Mesolithic Britain's blue-eyed boy | Natural History Museum

James Fong et al. Novel color via stimulation of individual photoreceptors at population scale. Sci. Adv. 11, eadu1052 (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adu1052

Interesting facts about green eyes | Glasses Direct Blog

Eye color - Wikipedia

Amber Eyes: How Rare Are They? | Warby Parker

Eye color and the prediction of complex phenotypes from genotypes Liu, Fan et al. (2009) Current Biology, Volume 19, Issue 5, R192 - R193

How Rare Are Grey Eyes? | Warby Parker

Celtic History Decoded: Iberian DNA and the Evolution of Hazel Eyes… - YouTube

Creative Commons Imagery:

Lofy40 File:Traditional clouths berbère chaoui.jpg - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International - Creative Commons

8thstar at English Wikipedia. File:A blue eye.jpg - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported - Creative Commons

Geni CC-BY-SA File:Cheddar Man upper body.JPG - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International - Creative Commons

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Brazilianboy94 File:Amber-eyes.jpg - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International - Creative Commons

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SOURCE: https://youtu.be/CxWVDjs-thA