Scientists Use DNA to Determine 7,000 Year Old Hunter Gatherer Had Dark Skin and Blue Eyes

Posted on January 26, 2014

In 2006 the remains of two Mesolithic men were found in the La Brana-Arintero cave site in Spain. DNA from one of the skeletal remains, La Brana 1, was exceptionally well preserved due to the cave location in a cold mountainous area with a steady temperature and a location of 1,500 meters below sea level.

Researchers were able to analyze DNA extracted from the teeth of La Brana 1 and ascertain some information about what the 7,000-year-old European hunter-gatherer looked like. The researchers have determined that the man had blue eyes and dark skin.

The researchers also say La Brana 1 lacked the ability to digest lactose. The researchers also say "significant number of derived, putatively adaptive variants associated with pathogen resistance in modern Europeans were already present in this hunter-gatherer." The details are the result of a study conducted by Carles Lalueza-Fox, researcher from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), in collaboration with the Centre for GeoGenetics in Denmark.

Lalueza-Fox says in a release, "However, the biggest surprise was to discover that this individual possessed African versions in the genes that determine the light pigmentation of the current Europeans, which indicates that he had dark skin, although we can not know the exact shade."

Another CSIC researcher said in a statement, "Even more surprising was to find that he possessed the genetic variations that produce blue eyes in current Europeans, resulting in a unique phenotype in a genome that is otherwise clearly northern European."

The research was published here in the journal Nature.

ARCHAEOLOGY