Prehistoric man was dark-skinned with blue eyes, say Spanish archaeologists
Wednesday, January 29, 2014 @ 9:55 AM
A TYPICAL European citizen 7,000 years ago had blue eyes and dark skin and hair, according to genetic research by Spain's High Council of Scientific Investigations (CSIC).
Biologist Carles Lalueza-Fox says the findings were based upon exceptionally-well preserved DNA from the remains of Mesolithic man discovered at the La Braña-Arintero archaeological dig in Valdelugueros (León province).
Samples taken in the spring of 2012 enabled the CSIC to sequence one per cent of the DNA of the two men whose bones were dug up, which showed that today's population native to mainland Spain and Portugal, or the Iberian Peninsula, are not genetically related to inhabitants from this historical era.
Later, in March 2013, Lalueza-Fox's team analysed the root of a molar tooth from one of the Mesolithic men, whom they had baptised La Braña 1, which enabled them to decipher the complete genome of the individual and create a photo-fit image of what he would have looked like.
Joining forces with the Centre for GeoGenetics in Denmark, the discovery that blue eyes in Europeans pre-dated pale skin genes was published in the history journal Nature on Sunday.
Pale skin genes came later and are a separate factor from those that result in blue eyes, despite its being generally considered they come together.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com