Hawaii is one of the most isolated islands on Earth, surrounded by vast oceans for thousands of miles on every side. And yet humans have been living there for nearly a millennia. They’re part of the Polynesian diaspora. This culture of ultravoyagers embarked on their own age of exploration while Europe was still mired in the Middle Ages, colonizing the tiny islands dotting the South Pacific without the benefit of metal tools, navigational equipment, or a written language. Now, a new study published in Science Advances is better defining their genetic history.
“What we uncover in this paper is where the Native people of Hawaii had come from,” study author Alexander Ioannidis of Stanford University said in a statement. “Hawaii is the only Polynesian island in the Northern Hemisphere, so it’s a long way from everything.”
Read more: “Hawaii’s False Killer Whales Are Wasting Away”
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