Wood Jamie R, Herrera Michael J B, Scofield R Paul, Wilmshurst Janet M
Long-term Ecology Lab , Landcare Research , PO Box 69040, Lincoln 7640 , New Zealand.
Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, School of Biological Sciences , University of Adelaide , North Terrace Campus, South Australia 5005 , Australia.
R Soc Open Sci. 2016 Aug 3;3(8):160258. doi: 10.1098/rsos.160258. eCollection 2016 Aug.
Human settlers transported chickens () to most East Polynesian archipelagos between AD 1000 and 1300; however, it has long been assumed that New Zealand was an exception. Despite the fact that chicken bones have been recovered from localities of early archaeological middens in New Zealand, their age and genetic relationships have never been critically assessed. Here, we test the assumption that chickens were not introduced to New Zealand during prehistory through ancient DNA and radiocarbon analyses of chicken bones from sites of Māori middens containing prehistoric material. The chickens belong to the widespread mitochondrial control region haplogroup E. Radiocarbon dating reveals that the bones are not prehistoric, but are still the earliest chicken remains known from New Zealand. Two of the bones pre-date permanent European settlement ( 1803s onwards) but overlap with the arrival of James Cook's second voyage (1773-1774), and, therefore, they are likely to be chickens, or progeny thereof, liberated during that voyage. Our results support the idea that chickens were first introduced to New Zealand by Europeans, and provide new insights into Māori uptake and integration of resources introduced during the early post-European period.
公元1000年至1300年间，人类定居者将鸡引入了大多数东波利尼西亚群岛；然而，长期以来人们一直认为新西兰是个例外。尽管在新西兰早期考古遗址的垃圾堆中发现了鸡骨头，但它们的年代和遗传关系从未得到过严格评估。在这里，我们通过对毛利人史前垃圾堆遗址出土的鸡骨头进行古DNA和放射性碳分析，来检验史前时期鸡未被引入新西兰这一假设。这些鸡属于广泛分布的线粒体控制区单倍群E。放射性碳年代测定表明，这些骨头并非史前的，但仍是新西兰已知最早的鸡遗骸。其中两块骨头早于欧洲人永久定居（19世纪03年代起），但与詹姆斯·库克第二次航行（1773 - 1774年）的时间重叠，因此，它们很可能是在那次航行中放生的鸡或其后代。我们的研究结果支持了鸡最初是由欧洲人引入新西兰的观点，并为毛利人在后欧洲早期对引入资源的接受和整合提供了新的见解。
