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Subject:
From:
James Fischer <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sat, 18 Nov 2023 17:25:33 -0500
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> Eye color may have had an adaptive benefit at one time or for one group, but eye color today does not. 

The study cited did not imply this.  The study states that one cannot, via DNA forensic analysis, tell what color eyes the missing victim or suspect has.  It said nothing about the question "is eye color an adaptation?".  It made a statement that DNA analysis is not as easy as it looks on TV detective shows, no surprise there.

The adaptive benefit of eye color to the local sun exposure still exists, of course - melanin and a resulting darker eye color clearly does still protect eyes from excess light and UV, which causes damage significant enough to cause "Age-Related Macular Degeneration" for 1 in 3 people 75 years old or older. AMD is far more common in people with blue eyes, no surprise.  Untreated people go blind.

The easy test to confirm the assertion that eye color is an adaptation to excess sun exposure is to compare equatorial and pacific islanders with the Inuit peoples.  At the equator, lots of sun year round.  At the poles, non-stop sun for about half the year. Both sets of people have very dark eyes -  no blue or hazel eyes among them.  Between them, in more temperate latitudes, there are a mix of eye colors, including blue and hazel.  There are lots of blue-eyed Scots like myself, as Scotland has 265 rainy days per year and of the 100 non-rainy days, many are cloudy. 

Now what all this has to do with white-eyed drones is beyond me, but they are blind from birth.

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