An analysis of chicken DNA suggested the Polynesians did not beat Columbus to South America after all.
Researchers looked at ancient DNA from the remains of chickens uncovered in archaeological digs across the Pacific, a University of Adelaide news release reported.
"We have identified genetic signatures of the original Polynesian chickens, and used these to track early movements and trading patterns across the Pacific," lead author Doctor Vicki Thomson of ACAD, said in the news release. "We were also able to trace the origins of these lineages back into the Philippines, providing clues about the source of the original Polynesian chicken populations."
The research team's findings dispute previous ideas that the early Polynesians and South Americans had contact; this theory may have come from "contaminated results."
Tracing the genetic markers of the Polynesian chickens revealed showed the line was unique to the Pacific and Island Southeast Asia.
"We were able to re-examine bones used in previous studies that had linked ancient Pacific and South American chickens, suggesting early human contact, and found that some of the results were contaminated with modern chicken DNA, which occurs at trace levels in many laboratory components," ACAD Director Professor Alan Cooper said in the news release. "We were able to show that the ancient chicken DNA provided no evidence of any pre-Columbian contact between these areas."
"Remarkably, our study also shows that the original Polynesian lineages appear to have survived on some isolated Pacific islands, despite the introduction of European domestic animals across the Pacific in the last couple of hundred years," Cooper said. "These original lineages could be of considerable importance to the poultry industry which is concerned about the lack of genetic diversity in commercial stocks."
The findings were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.
