Population Turnover in Remote Oceania Shortly after Initial Settlement

Mark Lipson; Pontus Skoglund; Matthew Spriggs; Frederique Valentin; Stuart Bedford; Richard Shing; Hallie Buckley; Iarawai Phillip; Graeme K Ward; Swapan Mallick; Nadin Rohland; Nasreen Broomandkhoshbacht; Olivia Cheronet; Matthew Ferry; Thomas K Harper; Megan Michel; Jonas Oppenheimer; Kendra Sirak; Kristin Stewardson; Kathryn Auckland; Adrian V S Hill; Kathryn Maitland; Stephen J Oppenheimer; Tom Parks; Kathryn Robson; Thomas N Williams; Douglas J Kennett; Alexander J Mentzer; Ron Pinhasi; David Reich

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2018.02.051

Population Turnover in Remote Oceania Shortly after Initial Settlement

Curr Biol. 2018 Apr 2;28(7):1157-1165.e7. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.02.051. Epub 2018 Feb 28.

Authors

Mark Lipson¹, Pontus Skoglund², Matthew Spriggs³, Frederique Valentin⁴, Stuart Bedford⁵, Richard Shing⁶, Hallie Buckley⁷, Iarawai Phillip⁶, Graeme K Ward⁸, Swapan Mallick⁹, Nadin Rohland¹⁰, Nasreen Broomandkhoshbacht¹¹, Olivia Cheronet¹², Matthew Ferry¹¹, Thomas K Harper¹³, Megan Michel¹¹, Jonas Oppenheimer¹¹, Kendra Sirak¹⁴, Kristin Stewardson¹¹, Kathryn Auckland¹⁵, Adrian V S Hill¹⁵, Kathryn Maitland¹⁶, Stephen J Oppenheimer¹⁷, Tom Parks¹⁵, Kathryn Robson¹⁸, Thomas N Williams¹⁶, Douglas J Kennett¹³, Alexander J Mentzer¹⁵, Ron Pinhasi¹², David Reich¹⁹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].
² Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; The Francis Crick Institute, London NW1 1AT, UK.
³ School of Archaeology and Anthropology, College of Arts and Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia; Vanuatu National Museum, Vanuatu Cultural Centre, P.O. Box 184, Port Vila, Vanuatu.
⁴ Maison de l'Archéologie et de l'Ethnologie, CNRS, UMR 7041, 92023 Nanterre, France.
⁵ Vanuatu National Museum, Vanuatu Cultural Centre, P.O. Box 184, Port Vila, Vanuatu; Department of Archaeology and Natural History, College of Asia-Pacific, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
⁶ Vanuatu National Museum, Vanuatu Cultural Centre, P.O. Box 184, Port Vila, Vanuatu.
⁷ Department of Anatomy, Otago Global Health Institute, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Otago, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand.
⁸ Department of Archaeology and Natural History, College of Asia-Pacific, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
⁹ Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Medical and Population Genetics Program, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
¹¹ Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
¹² Department of Anthropology, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, 1090 Vienna, Austria; Earth Institute, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland.
¹³ Department of Anthropology and Institute for Energy and the Environment, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
¹⁴ Earth Institute, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland; Department of Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
¹⁵ Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7BN, UK.
¹⁶ Department of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College, St Mary's Hospital, Norfolk Place, Paddington, London W2 1PG, UK.
¹⁷ School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6PE, UK.
¹⁸ MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 9DS, UK.
¹⁹ Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Medical and Population Genetics Program, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA; Max Planck-Harvard Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].

Abstract

Ancient DNA from Vanuatu and Tonga dating to about 2,900-2,600 years ago (before present, BP) has revealed that the "First Remote Oceanians" associated with the Lapita archaeological culture were directly descended from the population that, beginning around 5000 BP, spread Austronesian languages from Taiwan to the Philippines, western Melanesia, and eventually Remote Oceania. Thus, ancestors of the First Remote Oceanians must have passed by the Papuan-ancestry populations they encountered in New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, and the Solomon Islands with minimal admixture [1]. However, all present-day populations in Near and Remote Oceania harbor >25% Papuan ancestry, implying that additional eastward migration must have occurred. We generated genome-wide data for 14 ancient individuals from Efate and Epi Islands in Vanuatu from 2900-150 BP, as well as 185 present-day individuals from 18 islands. We find that people of almost entirely Papuan ancestry arrived in Vanuatu by around 2300 BP, most likely reflecting migrations a few hundred years earlier at the end of the Lapita period, when there is also evidence of changes in skeletal morphology and cessation of long-distance trade between Near and Remote Oceania [2, 3]. Papuan ancestry was subsequently diluted through admixture but remains at least 80%-90% in most islands. Through a fine-grained analysis of ancestry profiles, we show that the Papuan ancestry in Vanuatu derives from the Bismarck Archipelago rather than the geographically closer Solomon Islands. However, the Papuan ancestry in Polynesia-the most remote Pacific islands-derives from different sources, documenting a third stream of migration from Near to Remote Oceania.

Keywords: Lapita; Near Oceania; Pacific Islanders; Remote Oceania; ancient DNA; migration.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

DNA, Ancient / analysis*
Female
Genetics, Population*
Genome, Human*
Genome-Wide Association Study
Human Migration / statistics & numerical data*
Humans
Male
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander / genetics*
Oceania
Phylogeny
Population Dynamics*

Substances

DNA, Ancient

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

Grants and funding