(CNN) Indigenous Americans and Polynesians crossed thousands of miles of open ocean and made contact with each other as early as 1200 A.D., centuries before the arrival of Europeans, a new study has found. Archeologists have long believed the two regions made early contact, pointing to the early, widespread cultivation of a South American plant in Polynesia, a collection of more than 1,000 islands scattered over the Pacific Ocean. The results of a genomic study now confirmed they did. According to a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature , researchers found "conclusive evidence" for the early encounter between the two groups, after analyzing the DNA of more than 800 individuals from 17 Polynesian islands and 15 indigenous American groups on the Pacific coast. The researchers were looking for signs that prehistoric Polynesians and Indigenous Americans had children together, which would leave a clear genetic signature in their offspring -- called an admixture.

Source: CNN July 09, 2020 07:07 UTC