Richard Walter

TL;DR: 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, provide firm evidence for the pre-Columbian introduction of chickens to the Americas, and strongly suggest that it was a Polynesian introduction.

TL;DR: The results from the ancient DNA analyses of forty-eight archaeologically derived chicken bones provide support for archaeological hypotheses about the prehistoric human transport of chickens and lead to the proposal of four hypotheses which will require further scrutiny and rigorous future testing.

TL;DR: It is shown for the first time that fossil eggshell is a previously unrecognized source of ancient DNA (aDNA), and the successful isolation and amplification of DNA from fossil egg shell up to 19 ka old is described.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a new formulation of the culture history of the region which summarises current evidence and critiques past assumptions that have influenced our understanding of both Solomon Islands archaeology and the archaeology of Pacific colonisation.

TL;DR: An early introduction of dogs to Island Southeast Asia is seen, which does not appear to extend into the islands of Oceania, and a widespread dog clade found across the Pacific, including the Islands of Polynesia, is identified, which likely suggests a post-Lapita dog introduction from southern Island SoutheastAsia.