Ancestry-specific analyses of genome-wide data confirm the settlement sequence of Polynesia

TL;DR

This study uses genome-wide data to confirm the sequence of settlement in Polynesia, emphasizing the role of population replacements and admixture in human history, and clarifying the peopling process of Polynesia as a range expansion.

Contribution

It provides ancestry-specific analyses that support a specific settlement sequence in Polynesia, contrasting with previous admixture hypotheses, and refines understanding of Polynesian population history.

Findings

Supports a range expansion model for Polynesian settlement

Contradicts large-scale admixture hypothesis in Polynesia

Confirms the sequence of settlement events in Polynesian history

Abstract

By demonstrating the role that historical population replacements and waves of admixture have played around the world, the genetics work of Reich and colleagues has provided a paradigm for understanding human history [Reich et al. 2009; Reich et al. 2012; Patterson et al. 2012]. Although we show in Ioannidis et al. [2021] that the peopling of Polynesia was a range expansion, and not, as suggested by Huang et al. [2022], yet another example of waves of admixture and large-scale gene flow between populations, we believe that our result in this recently settled oceanic expanse is the exception that proves the rule.