Re: Chicken in South America

On Jun 10, 5:16 am, "Peter Alaca" <p.al...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Eric Stevens <eric.stev...@xxxxxxxxx > wrote:



On Sun, 10 Jun 2007 10:57:37 +0200, "Peter Alaca"
<p.al...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Eric Stevens <eric.stev...@xxxxxxxxx > wrote:

On Sat, 09 Jun 2007 12:25:39 -0700, chazwin <chazwy...@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

On Jun 5, 9:23 pm, Eric Stevens <eric.stev...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=35&objectid=10443758

"A single chicken bone has provided anthropologists with the
strongest evidence yet to suggest that Polynesian seafarers
sailed to South America before the discovery of the New World
by European explorers.

The possibility that Polynesians had direct contact with the
indigenous people of South America has long intrigued experts
on ancient human migrations, but hard evidence has been
difficult to come by.

However, a study by scientists from New Zealand and Chile has
shown that chickens may well have been introduced into South
America from Polynesians sailing from the west rather than
Europeans coming from the east.

Chicken bones excavated from an archaeological site in central
Chile have been analysed by carbon dating and by DNA profiling.
One of the bones was dated to more than 100 years before the
first Europeans arrived in South America and its DNA shows a
strong correlation with the DNA of present-day chickens living
on the inhabited islands of the Pacific Ocean." ... more

Mind you, people George F Carter has been saying much the same
kind of thing since 1971.

Eric Stevens

All very well but RC dating is simply not up to the task if the
bone was only 100 years older than the arrival of the Spanish -
sorry. I would not deny the strong possiblity that polynesians were
perfectly capable of making the trip and probably did - afterall
they get at least as far as Easter Island - but this particular
piece of evidence is no evidence at all.

They would need to date more than one bone!
"A single chicken bone has provided anthropologists with the
strongest evidence yet to suggest that Polynesian seafarers sailed
to South America before the discovery of the New World by European
explorers." and it would have to be older than 100 years before the
Spanish arrived to be a secure dating.

There is also the complication that there is a peculiar wiggle in
the radiocarbon calibration curve in the 14th century which has the
potential to lead to multiple probable ages. See
http://www1.phys.uu.nl/ams/images/calibration.gif(which is a
diagram fromhttp://www1.phys.uu.nl/ams/Radiocarbon.htm)

You can also see a similar lesser disturbance in the 16th century.
I've only just found this image, otherwise I would have produced it
for the earlier discussion of the age of the Newport Tower.

Eric Stevens

" For example, 14C dates from the period after 1660 AD
cannot be discriminated against modern material"
That's certainly is largely true ...

What do you mean 'largely'. The quote is from the
Utrecht University site.

... if one is relying only on 14C dating.

Isn't that is what we are talking about?

There is also a problem from 1530 to ~1630.

--
p.a.

Just for grins here are the texts and references from the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences pre-release site. The full text
PDF requires membership.

http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0703993104/DC1
Storey et al. 10.1073/pnas.0703993104.
Supporting Information
Files in this Data Supplement:
SI Methods




SI Methods

The work at the University of Auckland was undertaken in two
physically separated and dedicated ancient DNA laboratories in the
Department of Anthropology, one in which ancient DNA was extracted
from bone material, and the second where PCR amplification occurred.
Post-PCR purification took place in a third laboratory. Independent
extraction, amplification, and sequencing of the Chilean bone sample
was undertaken at the Ancient DNA Facility at Massey University.

Ancient DNA Extraction and Amplification. All samples destined for
ancient DNA analysis were photographed, weighed, and measured. A
subsample of each of the archaeological bones was taken and ancient
DNA extractions for all archaeological bones were carried out at the
University of Auckland ancient DNA facility by using a modified
guanidine thiocyanate silica suspension technique (1). Blank
extraction controls were carried out with each extraction, and
negative PCR controls were regularly used to detect possible
contaminants. The following two overlapping primer sets were used to
target »400 bp of the most variable region of the chicken mtDNA D-loop
[from sites 144 to 556 numbered according to Desjardins and Morais
(2)]:

GG 144F 5'-ACCCATTATATGTATACGGGCATTAA and

GG387R 5'-CGAGCATAACCAAATGGGTTAGA,

GG 316F 5'-AACAAGTCACCTAACTATGAATGGTTAC and

GG 586R 5'-AGTTATGCATGGGATGTGCCTGACCGA.

PCR amplifications were performed in 30-ml reaction volumes containing
10mM Tris·HCl (pH 8.3), 50mM KCl, 2.4mM MgCl2, 0.5mM each primer, 30
mg bovine serum albumen, 0.15mM each dNTP, 1 unit of Taq DNA
polymerase (PerkinElmer/Cetus), and 5 ml of target DNA. PCR
amplifications were conducted using a Bio-Rad iCycler Thermo Cycler
(Bio-Rad Laboratories). Initial denaturing was at 94°C for 2 min; 10
cycles each denaturing at 94°C for 20 sec, annealing at 54°C for 20
sec, and extension at 72°C for 20 sec, followed by 35 cycles each of
denaturing at 94°C for 20 sec, annealing at 50°C for 20 sec, and
extension at 72°C for 20 sec. A final extension period of 5 min at
74°C followed, and samples were then cooled to 15°C. Control samples
in which no target DNA was added were used as negative controls in all
amplifications to check for contamination.

DNA was extracted from the third piece of the CHLARA001 bone at a
separate ancient DNA facility at Massey University, and the resultant
DNA was amplified by using primer sets GG 144F/GG387R and GG 316F/GG
586R. DNA extraction and amplification was carried out as outlined in
Huynen et al. (3). Amplified products were purified by centrifugation
through Sephacryl S200, cloned into pCR 2.1 (Invitrogen).

Feather DNA Extraction. Extraction of DNA from the feathers of modern
Araucana chickens followed the procedures of Huynen et al. (4) in the
modern DNA laboratory at the Department of Anthropology, University of
Auckland. Fragments of »700 bp of the hypervariable mitochondrial
control region (CR) were amplified via PCR with primers designed for
Gallus mtDNA:

GG144F (5'-ACCCATTATATGTATACGGGCATTAA) and

GG830R (5'-TTTGTGAGGGGAGTTAAGTGGCA).

PCR amplifications were performed in 20-ml reaction volumes containing
10 mM Tris·HCl (pH 8.3), 50 mM KCl, 2.0 mM MgCl2, 0.15 mM each of
dNTPs (Pharmacia), 0.5 mM each primer, 1 unit of Taq DNA polymerase
(PerkinElmer/Cetus), and 1 ml of target DNA. PCR amplifications were
conducted using a Bio-Rad iCycler Thermo Cycler (Bio-Rad
Laboratories). Initial denaturing was at 94°C for 2 min, followed by
35 cycles, each of denaturing at 94°C for 20 sec, annealing at 54°C
for 20 sec, and extension at 72°C for 20 sec. A final extension period
of 5 min at 74°C followed, and samples were then cooled to 4°C.
Control samples in which no target DNA was added were used as negative
controls in all amplifications to check for contamination.

Purification and Sequencing. Amplified PCR Products of both ancient
and modern samples were purified in sephacryl columns (Microspin S300,
from Amersham Pharmacia, Pharmacea, Biotech) and quantified on 2%
ethidium bromide-stained agarose gels by using a low mass ladder.
Sequencing (of PCR products and clones) was carried out at the Allan
Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution (Albany Branch)
using the BigDye Terminator Version 3.1 Ready Reaction Cycle
Sequencing Kit run using a capillary ABI3730 Genetic Analyzer (Applied
Biosystems).

1. Matisoo-Smith E, Allen JS, Ladefoged TN, Roberts RM, Lambert DM
(1997) Electrophoresis 18:1534-1537.

2. Desjardins P, Morais R (1990) J Mol Biol 212:599-634.

3. Huynen L, Millar CD, Scofield RP, Lambert DM (2003) Nature
425:175-178.

4. Huynen L, Lambert DM, McLennan JA, Rickard C, Robertson HA (2003)
Notornis 50:231-233.

Published online before print June 7, 2007
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 10.1073/pnas.0703993104

Anthropology-Social Sciences
Radiocarbon and DNA evidence for a pre-Columbian introduction of
Polynesian chickens to Chile

( ancient DNA | Gallus gallus | Polynesia )
Alice A. Storey *{dagger}, José Miguel Ramírez {ddagger}, Daniel
Quiroz {sect}, David V. Burley ¶, David J. Addison ||, Richard Walter
**, Atholl J. Anderson {dagger}{dagger}, Terry L. Hunt {ddagger}
{ddagger}, J. Stephen Athens {sect}{sect}, Leon Huynen ¶¶, and
Elizabeth A. Matisoo-Smith *{dagger}

*Department of Anthropology and Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular
Ecology and Evolution, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019,
Auckland 1142, New Zealand; {ddagger}Proyecto Dipuv-Reg No. 26/2005,
Universidad de Valparaíso, Chile; {sect}Dirección de Bibliotecas,
Archivos y Museos-Proyecto Fondecyt, 1020272 Santiago, Chile;
¶Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University EBD 9635-8888
University Drive, Burnaby, BC, Canada V5A 1S6; ||Institute of Samoan
Studies, American Samoa Community College, Pago Pago, American Samoa
96799; **Department of Anthropology, University of Otago, 2nd Floor
Sir John Richardson Building, Castle Street, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin
9054, New Zealand; {dagger}{dagger}Research School of Pacific and
Asian Studies, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200,
Australia; {ddagger}{ddagger}Department of Anthropology, University of
Hawai'i-Manoa, 2424 Maile Way, Honolulu, HI 96822; {sect}
{sect}International Archaeological Research Institute, 2081 Young
Street, Honolulu, HI 96826-2231; and ¶¶Institute of Molecular
BioSciences and Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and
Evolution, Massey University, Albany, Auckland 0632, New Zealand

Communicated by Patrick V. Kirch, University of California, Berkeley,
CA, May 1, 2007 (received for review February 10, 2007)

Two issues long debated among Pacific and American prehistorians are
(i) whether there was a pre-Columbian introduction of chicken (Gallus
gallus) to the Americas and (ii) whether Polynesian contact with South
America might be identified archaeologically, through the recovery of
remains of unquestionable Polynesian origin. We present a radiocarbon
date and an ancient DNA sequence from a single chicken bone recovered
from the archaeological site of El Arenal-1, on the Arauco Peninsula,
Chile. These results not only provide firm evidence for the pre-
Columbian introduction of chickens to the Americas, but strongly
suggest that it was a Polynesian introduction.

Author contributions: A.A.S., J.M.R., and E.A.M.-S. designed research;
A.A.S., L.H., and E.A.M.-S. performed research; J.M.R., D.Q., D.V.B.,
D.J.A., R.W., A.J.A., T.L.H., and J.S.A. contributed new reagents/
analytic tools; A.A.S. and E.A.M.-S. analyzed data; and A.A.S.,
J.M.R., D.Q., D.V.B., D.J.A., R.W., A.J.A., T.L.H., J.S.A., L.H., and
E.A.M.-S. wrote the paper.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

{dagger}To whom correspondence may be addressed.
Alice A. Storey, E-mail: asto062@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Elizabeth A. Matisoo-Smith, E-mail: e.matisoo-smith@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.0703993104



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