Jack Linthicum
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 Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 9:43 pm Post subject: Re: Stalemate - seafaring Polynesians & their chickens beat |
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On Jul 30, 5:33 pm, David <pchristain...@yahoo.com> wrote:
[quote]Ker Than for National Geographic Newshttp://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/07/080728-polynesia-chic...
"In other words, the Chilean chicken could
have come from anywhere."
We just don>t know.
David Christainsen
[/quote]
Yes we do, read back a bit and see how wrong you are.
On Jul 29, 12:07 pm, Jack Linthicum <jacklinthi...@earthlink.net>
wrote:
[quote]'Chicken and Chips' Theory of Pacific Migration
Libraries
Science News Keywords
AUSTRALIAN CENTRE FOR ANCIENT DNA
Contact Information
Available for logged-in reporters only
Description
A new study of DNA from ancient and modern chickens has shed light on
the controversy about the extent of pre-historic Polynesian contact
with the Americas.
Newswise — A new study of DNA from ancient and modern chickens has
shed light on the controversy about the extent of pre-historic
Polynesian contact with the Americas.
The study questions recent claims that chickens were first introduced
into South America by Polynesians, before the arrival of Spanish
chickens in the 15th century following Christopher Columbus.
It is published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences USA (July 28) by an international research group,
including scientists from the University of Adelaide’s Australian
Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD).
ACAD Director Professor Alan Cooper says there has been considerable
debate about the existence and degree of contact between Polynesians
and South Americans, with the presence of the sweet potato throughout
the Pacific often used as evidence of early trading contacts.
“Similarly, Polynesians are known to have spread chickens across the
Pacific at least as far as Easter Island, but were not thought to have
introduced them to South America,” he says
A recent study claimed to have found the first direct evidence of a
genetic link between ancient Polynesian and apparently pre-Columbian
chickens from archaeological sites in Chile, supporting the idea that
there was extensive contact between Polynesia and South America and
that chicken and ‘chips’ had been traded in opposite directions.
The current work challenges this conclusion however, by generating DNA
data from 41 native Chilean chicken specimens, and comparing these
with over 1000 modern domestic chickens from around the world, and the
previously published DNA from Polynesian and Chilean chicken bones.
“The results showed that the ancient Polynesian and Chilean chickens
possessed a genetic sequence that is the most common in the world
today, the so-called ‘KFC’ gene” Professor Cooper says. “This sequence
would undoubtedly have been common in the early Spanish chickens, and
therefore provides no evidence of Polynesian contact. So while we can
say the KFC chicken was popular amongst early Polynesian voyagers, we
certainly can’t use it as evidence for trade with South America”.
The researchers did find a highly unusual DNA sequence in the ancient
Easter Island chickens, which originate from Indonesia or the
Philippines, but this apparently did not get passed on to South
America. “This is important because Easter Island is commonly thought
of as a major jumping off point for Polynesian contact with South
America,” says team member and ACAD PhD student Nicolas Rawlence.
According to project leader Dr Jaime Gongora from Sydney University,
many people in South America like to believe they are descendants of
Polynesians. “This study does not disprove this idea, but we have
found no evidence to support pre-historic contact.”
© 2008 Newswise. All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
Indo-European and Asian origins for Chilean and Pacific chickens
revealed by mtDNA
1. Jaime Gongora*,†,
2. Nicolas J. Rawlence,
3. Victor A. Mobegi§,
4. Han Jianlin§,¶,
5. Jose A. Alcalde‖,
6. Jose T. Matus‖,
7. Olivier Hanotte§,
8. Chris Moran*,
9. Jeremy J. Austin‡,
10. Sean Ulm**,
11. Atholl J. Anderson††,
12. Greger Larson‡‡,§§, and
13. Alan Cooper‡
+Author Affiliations
1.
*Centre for Advanced Technologies in Animal Genetics and
Reproduction, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Sydney,
Sydney NSW 2006, Australia;
2.
‡Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, School of Earth and
Environmental Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide SA 5005,
Australia;
3.
§International Livestock Research Institute, P.O. Box 30709,
Nairobi 00100, Kenya;
4.
¶Joint Laboratory on Livestock and Forage Genetic Resources,
Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences,
Beijing 100094, China;
5.
‖Facultad de Agronomia e Ingenieria Forestal, Pontificia
Universidad Catolica de Chile, Casilla 306-22 Santiago, Chile;
6.
**Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, University
of Queensland, Brisbane QLD 4072, Australia;
7.
‡‡Department of Archaeology, Durham University, South Road,
Durham DH1 3LE, United Kingdom;
8.
§§Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala
University Biomedical Center, Box 597, 751 24 Uppsala, Sweden; and
9.
††Department of Archaeology and Natural History, Research School
of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, Canberra
ACT 0200, Australia
1.
Edited by Joyce Marcus, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI,
and approved May 7, 2008 (received for review February 29, 2008)
Abstract
European chickens were introduced into the American continents by the
Spanish after their arrival in the 15th century. However, there is
ongoing debate as to the presence of pre-Columbian chickens among
Amerindians in South America, particularly in relation to Chilean
breeds such as the Araucana and Passion Fowl. To understand the origin
of these populations, we have generated partial mitochondrial DNA
control region sequences from 41 native Chilean specimens and compared
them with a previously generated database of ≈1,000 domestic chicken
sequences from across the world as well as published Chilean and
Polynesian ancient DNA sequences. The modern Chilean sequences cluster
closely with haplotypes predominantly distributed among European,
Indian subcontinental, and Southeast Asian chickens, consistent with a
European genetic origin. A published, apparently pre-Columbian,
Chilean specimen and six pre-European Polynesian specimens also
cluster with the same European/Indian subcontinental/Southeast Asian
sequences, providing no support for a Polynesian introduction of
chickens to South America. In contrast, sequences from two
archaeological sites on Easter Island group with an uncommon
haplogroup from Indonesia, Japan, and China and may represent a
genetic signature of an early Polynesian dispersal. Modeling of the
potential marine carbon contribution to the Chilean archaeological
specimen casts further doubt on claims for pre-Columbian chickens, and
definitive proof will require further analyses of ancient DNA
sequences and radiocarbon and stable isotope data from archaeological
excavations within both Chile and Polynesia.[/quote] |
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