The genetic basis for blue eyes in Europeans is relatively well-understood, centered primarily on variants in and around a gene called HERC2/OCA2.

These variants, which are common across European populations today, were present in Cheddar Man’s genome.

The combination — dark skin with blue eyes — was striking to the point of seeming paradoxical to modern observers.

Contemporary Europeans with blue eyes are almost universally light-skinned.

The coexistence of blue eyes and dark skin in a single individual seems unusual from the perspective of contemporary European populations.

But as the researchers explained, this combination was not unusual for Mesolithic Europeans.