They found that Hawaiians share the most Polynesian ancestry with people on Easter Island, followed by people on Mangareva, an island nearly 3,000 kilometers west of Easter Island. Though no one had connected these distant dots previously, it makes sense that an ultravoyaging culture capable of reaching Easter Island from Mangareva would be the one to then settle Hawaii, Ioannidis said. (An earlier study by the researchers found that members of the same ultravoyaging population also reached South America and came in contact with Native Americans.)
The team also conducted a more detailed genomic analysis of people from Tahiti, the island for which they had the most genomes. By comparing identity-by-descent segments within the population, they could estimate the size and date of the founding generation — a group of approximately 800 people who arrived on the island about 34 generations ago, around the year 1070. (The population estimate is of a single generation of reproductive age and doesn’t include children and elders they may have brought along.)
They found that Hawaiians share the most Polynesian ancestry with people on Easter Island, followed by people on Mangareva, an island nearly 3,000 kilometers west of Easter Island. Though no one had connected these distant dots previously, it makes sense that an ultravoyaging culture capable of reaching Easter Island from Mangareva would be the one to then settle Hawaii, Ioannidis said. (An earlier study by the researchers found that members of the same ultravoyaging population also reached South America and came in contact with Native Americans.)
The team also conducted a more detailed genomic analysis of people from Tahiti, the island for which they had the most genomes. By comparing identity-by-descent segments within the population, they could estimate the size and date of the founding generation — a group of approximately 800 people who arrived on the island about 34 generations ago, around the year 1070. (The population estimate is of a single generation of reproductive age and doesn’t include children and elders they may have brought along.)