Indigenous South Americans reached islands in the South Pacifmizzzfic some 300 years before Christopher Columbus landed in the Americas, according to new genetic evidence.
An analysis of butchered animal bones suggests humans had somehow ventured to Madagascar by at least 10,000 years ago, which is 6000 years earlier than previous evidence suggested. This means humans likely played a key role in the extinction of the island’s large animals.
Christopher Columbus reached the New World in 1492, but some experts say Polynesian explorers beat him to it. There’s little evidence to support this fringe theory, but scientists have pointed to the presence of sweet potatoes, a plant thought to be native to the Americas, in the South Pacific as…