Origins and dispersals of Pacific peoples: evidence from mtDNA phylogenies of the Pacific rat.

ABSTRACT: The human settlement of the Pacific in general, and the origin of the Polynesians in particular, have been topics of debate for over two centuries. Polynesian origins are most immediately traced to people who arrived in the Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa region approximately 3,000 B.P. and are clearly associated with the Lapita Cultural Complex. Although this scenario of the immediate origins of the Polynesians is generally accepted, the debate on the ultimate origin of the Polynesians and the Lapita cultural complex continues. Our previous research has shown that analyses of mtDNA variation in the Pacific rat (Rattus exulans), often transported as a food item in the colonizing canoes, are valuable for tracing prehistoric human migration within Polynesia. Here we present mtDNA phylogenies based on

SUBMITTER: Matisoo-Smith E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC428491 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature