Eye Color Explained: Everything you know is wrong

Discover Magazine ^ | March 13, 2007 | Boonsri Dickinson

[SunkenCiv]

A sampling of the enormous variation in human eye color

[SunkenCiv]

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[Perdogg]

what about heterochromia?

[chuck_the_tv_out]

"accounts for about 74 percent of the total variation"

About 74%! Reminds me of when Darwin wrote that the Wealden deposits were 306,662,400 years old. (On the origin of species by means of natural selection or the preservation of favored races in the struggle for life, 1st edition)

It's either 74%, or it's not 74%. It might be "about 75%", but "about 74%" is pure tardedness.

[EyeGuy]

Yes as the article staes, most people are not aware of the fact that iris pigmentation is based completely on the AMOUNT of iris pigment, not its inherent coloration.

Swedes for example simply have less iris pigment for example than Africans.

The presence of pigment throughout the eye, does have some beneficial, protective effects for other ocular pathology, such as age-related macular degneration (ARMD).

[ElayneJ]

for later

[Larry Lucido]

What are you, some kind of homochrome?

[Monkey Face]

..."Green eyes probably represent the interaction of multiple variants within the OCA2 and in other genes, including perhaps the red-hair gene," Duffy says.

Hah! It's my red hair, my dad's blue eyes, and my mom's brown eyes.

Green eyes and red hair...how come only us wimmins have that? I've never seen a guy with red hair and green eyes....

:oþ

[Perdogg]

yep, just like 99% of us.

[MyTwoCopperCoins]

Both parents of this kid are black, BTW.

[raybbr]

It's either 74%, or it's not 74%. It might be "about 75%", but "about 74%" is pure tardedness.

This post is pure childishness.

[Little Bill]

Me.

[To Hell With Poverty]

Wow! Striking. What a beautiful little boy!

[srmorton]

Eye color is an example of what biologists call “continuous variation” - a trait that is obviously influenced by multiple genes. I always remind my students that this is the case even while I am using eye color as an example of a simple Mendelian trait. It is easy for them to relate to since most people have eyes that are some shade of brown or blue.

[Pharmboy]

Mine are hazel, as in the lower left in your photograph. What was particularly interesting to me was that for the first 45 years of my life my eyes were light brown with a few green flecks. After 45, they turned hazel...I even changed the eye color answer on my driver's license. My dad had light blue eyes, my mom brown, and my sister has blue.

And our genes are quite mixed up: Celtic, Romanian, Jewish and Ukrainian.

[svcw]

My eyes get greener as I get older. What’s the deal with that.
My grandson eyes were blue blue blue until he turned fourish and changed to dark brown - freaky really.

[Monkey Face]

Prove it! Show me a photo!! LOL!
Congratulations!!

You rock!
I have six red-haired siblings but they ALL have brown eyes. My hair is the darkest (dark auburn) and my eyes the lightest (hazel green.)

My son’s eyes are “honey” colored.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Is Vanessa Williams his mom ?

[Ole Okie]

It might be "about 75%", but "about 74%" is pure tardedness.

Details, details.

You're right. "About 74%" implies that it falls between 73.5 and 74.5%.

"About 75% would (to me) imply that the value is somewhere between 70 and 80%.

Or, using the law of the WAG, 75% would imply a value somewhere between 50 and 100%.

[Monkey Face]

Hi!

Haven’t seen you for a while!
All my sibs had blue-eyed first-born children except me. My son’s were “honey eyes.” However, after the first child, the eyes could vary, though never seeming to get out of being “blue” or “brown.”

Strange stuff, that.