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28/08/2005: "BREADFRUIT at Kapingamarangi Atoll"
Polynesians, history's greatest seafarers who settled islands across a vast area of ocean from Madagascar to Easter Island, originated in Taiwan, according to a new genetic study published in the journal Public Library of Science Biology.
The study looked at mitochondrial DNA, which is passed along virtually unchanged from mothers to their children, to determine that clear similarities exist between nine indigenous Taiwan groups and ethnic Polynesians.
Most Taiwanese today are decended from mainland Chinese who have arrived in the past four centuries. Jean Trejaut and Marie Lin of Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei lead the study and found that Taiwanese aboriginal populations have likely been genetically isolated from mainland Chinese for between 10,000 and 20,000 years.
