Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, never experienced a ruinous population collapse, according to an analysis of ancient DNA from 15 former inhabitants of the remote island in the Pacific Ocean.
Rapa Nui, known for its stone-carved heads, is at the southernmost point of the South Pacific's Polynesian Triangle. Also called Easter Island, it's one of the world's remotest inhabited regions.
But that theory remains contentious, and other archaeological evidence suggests that Rapa Nui was home to a small but sustainable society. Instead, the island was home to a small population that steadily increased in size until the 1860s, the analysis suggested. At this point, the study noted, slave raiders from Peru forcibly removed one-third of the island’s population.
Around six per cent to 11 per cent of the individuals’ genomes can be traced to coastal South American ancestors, the study found, and the team’s analysis provided information about when these two groups met and had offspring. The authors estimated it took place 15 to 17 generations before that of the individuals studied.The finding is not totally surprising.
“Their ancestors had spent at least 3000 years living in an Oceanic environment. They sailed eastwards across thousands of kilometres of open ocean and found almost all habitable islands across the vast Pacific. It would be more surprising if they had not reached the coast of South America. These results do provide some intriguing evidence of the timing of that contact.”
The human remains used in the new DNA analysis had been collected by French scholar Alphonse Pinart in 1877 and Swiss anthropologist Alfred Métraux in 1935, according to the latest study, which cited museum archives. Donald Trump wanted to spend this week attacking one of Democratic rival Kamala Harris' biggest political vulnerabilities. Instead, he spent most of the week falsely claiming that migrants are eating pets in a small town in Ohio and defending his embrace of a far-right agitator whose presence is causing concern among his allies.
Donald Trump wanted to spend this week attacking one of Democratic rival Kamala Harris' biggest political vulnerabilities. Instead, he spent most of the week falsely claiming that migrants are eating pets in a small town in Ohio and defending his embrace of a far-right agitator whose presence is causing concern among his allies.
'She would be furious this is how her life ended': Mother of woman killed in crash with suspected impaired driver speaks out The leaders of the four major Canadian political parties - Justin Trudeau, Yves-Francois Blanchet, Jagmeet Singh and Pierre Poiliever - made their pitches for why voters should choose their parties in the upcoming Montreal byelection in LaSalle-Emard-Verdun.Police on Montreal's South Shore are investigating after at least one gunshot was fired at a residence with people inside.A 25-year-old Montreal man is looking for a living kidney donor and has made a public appeal on social media.
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