Abstract

The colonization of Madagascar by Austronesian-speaking people during AD 50–500 represents the most westerly point of the greatest diaspora in prehistory. A range of economically important plants and animals may have accompanied the Austronesians. Domestic chickens (Gallus gallus) are found in Madagascar, but it is unclear how they arrived there. Did they accompany the initial Austronesian-speaking populations that reached Madagascar via the Indian Ocean or were they late arrivals with Arabian and African sea-farers? To address this question, we investigated the mitochondrial DNA control region diversity of modern chickens sampled from around the Indian Ocean rim (Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, East Africa and Madagascar). In contrast to the linguistic and human genetic evidence indicating dual African and Southeast Asian ancestry of the Malagasy people, we find that chickens in Madagascar only share a common ancestor with East Africa, which together are genetically closer to South Asian chickens than to those in Southeast Asia. This suggests that the earliest expansion of Austronesian-speaking people across the Indian Ocean did not successfully introduce chickens to Madagascar. Our results further demonstrate the complexity of the translocation history of introduced domesticates in Madagascar.

Highlights

  • Beginning in the first few centuries AD, Austronesian speakers from Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) established trade links with India and eventually colonized Madagascar during ca AD 50–500 [1,2]

  • Chickens in Madagascar cluster into two haplogroups: the majority (85%) of samples belong to haplogroup D and the rest belong to haplogroup E

  • Mitochondrial DNA data suggest that chickens were introduced into Madagascar from South Asia via East Africa

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Summary

Introduction

Beginning in the first few centuries AD, Austronesian speakers from Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) established trade links with India and eventually colonized Madagascar during ca AD 50–500 [1,2]. This makes Madagascar the most westerly point of the great Austronesian expansion. Linguistic and genetic evidence [3,4,5,6] suggests a dual ancestry for the indigenous people of Madagascar, involving both African and Southeast Asian origins. Malagasy, the language spoken in Madagascar, is a member of the Austronesian language family related to the Barito and Dayak languages spoken in southeast Kalimantan, Indonesia [7]. In addition to genetic and linguistic evidence, transfers of material culture are evident in the Austronesian-inherited traditions connecting Madagascar to Indonesia [8]

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