Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, never experienced a ruinous population collapse, according to an analysis of ancient DNA from 15 former inhabitants of the remote island in the Pacific Ocean.
The analysis also suggested that inhabitants of the island, which lies about 3,700 kilometres (2,300 miles) from the South American mainland, reached the Americas in the 1300s 鈥 long before Christopher Columbus鈥 1492 landing in the New World.
Settled by Polynesian seafarers 800 years ago, Rapa Nui, today part of Chile, has hundreds of monumental stone heads that echo of the past. The island has long been a place of intrigue.
Some experts, such as geographer Jared Diamond in his 2005 book, 鈥淐ollapse,鈥 used Easter Island as a cautionary tale of how the exploitation of limited resources can result in catastrophic population decline, ecological devastation and the destruction of a society through infighting.
But that theory remains contentious, and other archaeological evidence suggests that Rapa Nui was home to a small but sustainable society.
The new analysis marks the first time scientists have used ancient DNA to address the question of whether Easter Island saw a self-inflicted societal collapse, helping to shed light on its mysterious past.
To investigate Rapa Nui鈥檚 history further, researchers sequenced the genomes of 15 former residents who lived on the island during the past 400 years. The remains are stored at the Mus茅e de l鈥橦omme, or Museum of Mankind, in Paris, which is part of the French National Museum of Natural History.
The researchers found no evidence of a genetic bottleneck corresponding to a steep drop in population, according to the study that published Wednesday in the scientific journal Nature.
Instead, the island was home to a small population that steadily increased in size until the 1860s, the analysis suggested. At this point, the study noted, slave raiders from Peru forcibly removed one-third of the island鈥檚 population.
鈥淭here is definitely not a strong population collapse, like it has been argued, a population collapse where 80 per cent of the population or 90 per cent of the population died,鈥 said study coauthor J. V铆ctor Moreno-Mayar, an assistant professor of geogenetics at the University of Copenhagen鈥檚 Globe Institute in Denmark.
Rapa Nui is today a part of Chile and has long been a source of a fascination. An engraving depicts the giant statues, or moai, at the volcanic crater Rano Raraku. (J. L. Charmet/De Agostini/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)
The genomes also revealed that the Easter Islanders had exchanged genes with a Native American population, suggesting that the inhabitants crossed the ocean to South America somewhere between 1250 and 1430, ahead of Columbus鈥 arrival in the Americas 鈥 and well before Europeans reached Rapa Nui in 1722.
Around six per cent to 11 per cent of the individuals鈥 genomes can be traced to coastal South American ancestors, the study found, and the team鈥檚 analysis provided information about when these two groups met and had offspring. The authors estimated it took place 15 to 17 generations before that of the individuals studied.
The finding is not totally surprising. Oral histories and analysis of the DNA of present-day islanders suggested such ancestry, and remains of sweet potato, an import from South America, have been found on the island predating European contact, Moreno-Mayar said.
Some experts, and the wider public, have been reluctant to let go of cataclysmic stories about Easter Island, said Lisa Matisoo-Smith, a professor of biological anthropology at New Zealand鈥檚 University of Otago.
But the ancient genomes add to a growing body of evidence that the idea of a self-inflicted population collapse on Easter Island is a false narrative, said Matisoo-Smith, who wasn鈥檛 involved in the study.
鈥淲e know that the original Polynesian voyagers who discovered and settled Rapa Nui at least 800 years ago were among the greatest navigators and voyagers in the world,鈥 she said in a statement shared by New Zealand鈥檚 Science Media Centre.
鈥淭heir ancestors had spent at least 3000 years living in an Oceanic environment. They sailed eastwards across thousands of kilometres of open ocean and found almost all habitable islands across the vast Pacific. It would be more surprising if they had not reached the coast of South America. These results do provide some intriguing evidence of the timing of that contact.鈥
Matisoo-Smith noted that scholars based in Pacific regions had questioned the narrative of ecocide and society collapse based on a range of archaeological evidence.
鈥淏ut now, we finally have ancient DNA evidence that directly addresses these two questions and perhaps will allow us to focus on a more realistic narrative of the history of this intriguing, yet actually rather typical, Polynesian island,鈥 she said.
A study published in June, based on satellite imagery of land once used to grow food, reached a similar conclusion.
The human remains used in the new DNA analysis had been collected by French scholar Alphonse Pinart in 1877 and Swiss anthropologist Alfred M茅traux in 1935, according to the latest study, which cited museum archives.
Under what circumstances the remains were taken isn鈥檛 clear, the study said, but they were part of a wider trend of collecting from colonized regions during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The research team worked with Rapa Nui communities and government institutions to obtain consent for the study. The scientists said they hoped the results would help facilitate repatriation of the remains so that the individuals could be laid to rest on the island.
The Conservatives' first shot at toppling the Liberal government is likely doomed to fail, after Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Fran莽ois Blanchet told reporters his MPs will vote confidence in the government.
Court documents filed in the case of a Pakistani man arrested in Quebec for an alleged plot to kill Jews in New York City reveal the RCMP didn't have enough evidence to hold him in Canada.
With all these shots, some Canadians may have questions about the benefit of each vaccine, whether they should get every shot and how often to get them, and if it's safe to get them all at once or if they should space them out.
A 14-year-old student who allegedly set her classmate on fire is facing a new charge.
Video of a brazen daylight auto theft which shows a suspect running over a victim in a stolen luxury SUV has been released by police west of Toronto.
Lebanon's health ministry said Wednesday that at least 20 people were killed and 450 others wounded by exploding electronic devices in multiple regions of the country. The explosions came a day after an apparent Israeli attack targeting pagers used by Hezbollah killed at least 12 and wounded nearly 3,000. Here are the latest updates.
The Royal Canadian Mint unveiled in Winnipeg a new toonie, which began circulating Wednesday, highlighting the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Just one day after pagers used by hundreds of members of the militant group Hezbollah exploded, more electronic devices detonated in Lebanon Wednesday in what appeared to be a second wave of sophisticated, deadly attacks that targeted an extraordinary number of people. Here's what we know so far.
Lawyers for Sean "Diddy Combs asked a judge Wednesday to let him await his sex trafficking trial at his luxury home on an island near Miami Beach, rather than a grim federal jail in Brooklyn.
A B.C couple has been ordered to stop living in a motorhome on the property where their under-construction home 鈥 which they were first given a permit to build more than six years ago 鈥 has become an 鈥渆yesore,鈥 according to a recent court decision.
Court documents filed in the case of a Pakistani man arrested in Quebec for an alleged plot to kill Jews in New York City reveal the RCMP didn't have enough evidence to hold him in Canada.
A 29-year-old Quebec woman is facing a first-degree murder charge in the death of a five-year-old boy southwest of Montreal.
A 14-year-old student who allegedly set her classmate on fire is facing a new charge.
The Royal Canadian Mint unveiled in Winnipeg a new toonie, which began circulating Wednesday, highlighting the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Video of a brazen daylight auto theft which shows a suspect running over a victim in a stolen luxury SUV has been released by police west of Toronto.
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty to committing a criminal sexual act on Wednesday, nearly five months after the disgraced Hollywood movie mogul's sex crimes conviction in New York was overturned.
Lawyers for Sean "Diddy Combs asked a judge Wednesday to let him await his sex trafficking trial at his luxury home on an island near Miami Beach, rather than a grim federal jail in Brooklyn.
Brian Jeffrey Raymond, with a greying beard and orange prison jumpsuit, sat dejectedly as he heard his punishment for one of the most egregious misconduct cases in the CIA鈥檚 history.
Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. and his wife, La'Quetta, the city's superintendent of schools, have been indicted on child endangerment and other charges for allegedly beating their teenage daughter on numerous occasions, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Lebanon's health ministry said Wednesday that at least 20 people were killed and 450 others wounded by exploding electronic devices in multiple regions of the country. The explosions came a day after an apparent Israeli attack targeting pagers used by Hezbollah killed at least 12 and wounded nearly 3,000. Here are the latest updates.
Just one day after pagers used by hundreds of members of the militant group Hezbollah exploded, more electronic devices detonated in Lebanon Wednesday in what appeared to be a second wave of sophisticated, deadly attacks that targeted an extraordinary number of people. Here's what we know so far.
The Conservatives' first shot at toppling the Liberal government is likely doomed to fail, after Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Fran莽ois Blanchet told reporters his MPs will vote confidence in the government.
Two Liberal ministers are accusing Conservatives of lending their support to protesters who harassed Jagmeet Singh, among others, outside of Parliament Hill this week.
New federal legislation introduced Wednesday aims to give Jasper full authority over local land planning and development rather than Parks Canada.
With all these shots, some Canadians may have questions about the benefit of each vaccine, whether they should get every shot and how often to get them, and if it's safe to get them all at once or if they should space them out.
With its line-up of sweet snacks, Hershey isn鈥檛 known as a purveyor of diet foods. However, the company鈥檚 newest products are made specifically for those on a fitness kick.
More people who have never touched a cigarette are getting lung cancer, but there are ways to prevent it, according to a doctor.
Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.
Ontario Provincial Police are warning social media users about recent scams.
Australian police said Wednesday they have infiltrated Ghost, an encrypted global communications app developed for criminals, leading to dozens of arrests.
Lawyers for Sean "Diddy Combs asked a judge Wednesday to let him await his sex trafficking trial at his luxury home on an island near Miami Beach, rather than a grim federal jail in Brooklyn.
MrBeast is accused of creating 'unsafe' employment conditions, including sexual harassment, and misrepresenting contestants' odds at winning his new Amazon reality show's US$5 million grand prize in a lawsuit filed Tuesday by five unnamed participants.
In 2011, a young Taylor Swift said she was not inspired to sing about topics related to politics. Over a decade later, she's singing a different tune.
Low entry-level pay in the tentative deal between Air Canada and its pilots could be a stumbling block ahead of a union vote on the agreement, some aviators and experts say.
Some Brazilian users reconnected with X on Wednesday despite the Supreme Court's recent nationwide ban, the result of the social network apparently changing the way its servers are accessed. The reunion may be short-lived, however.
A report led by the Canada Research Chair in Urban Governance says restrictions on short-term rentals in British Columbia have reduced rents by 5.7 per cent, saving tenants more than $600 million last year
Buying a historic cruise ship he found on Craigslist back in 2008 was undoubtedly a life-altering decision for Chris Willson. In October 2023, Willson made the painful decision to sell the vessel, which began sinking around seven months later. Now its future looks bleak.
Two lucky people in Ontario and Quebec will split Tuesday鈥檚 record-breaking $80-million Lotto Max jackpot.
The Michelin Guide's famous inspectors have ventured outside Toronto's city limits.
Matthew Tkachuk estimated that he tells a story about Johnny Gaudreau's exploits, both the on-ice and off-ice variety, to somebody at least once a week.
Las Vegas Aces superstar A鈥檍a Wilson and Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark both broke WNBA records Sunday, with Wilson becoming the first player to score 1,000 points in a single season and Clark breaking the rookie scoring record.
Vancouver Canucks forward Dakota Joshua revealed Tuesday he underwent cancer treatment over the summer, and will not be ready to play when the team's training camp begins later this week.
Video of a brazen daylight auto theft which shows a suspect running over a victim in a stolen luxury SUV has been released by police west of Toronto.
The plant was expected to produce batteries for a million electric vehicles a year. Once up and running, it was supposed to create hundreds of permanent jobs in a small southeastern Ontario municipality. But two years later, spending on the construction of the Umicore plant has been delayed in what the company calls a "significant worsening of the EV market context."
A Winnipeg man is asking for help after a classic car that has been a part of his family since the 1950s was stolen from his garage.
An ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey named Goliath is missing from its longtime home at a veterinary hospital south of Calgary.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.
It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.
A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.
David Krumholtz, known for roles like Bernard the Elf in The Santa Clause and physicist Isidor Rabi in Oppenheimer, has spent the latter part of his summer filming horror flick Altar in Winnipeg. He says Winnipeg is the most movie-savvy town he's ever been in.
Edmontonians can count themselves lucky to ever see one tiger salamander, let alone the thousands one local woman says recently descended on her childhood home.
A daytrip to the backcountry turned into a frightening experience for a Vancouver couple this weekend.
If you take a look to the right of Hilda Duddridge鈥檚 100th birthday cake, you鈥檒l see a sculpture of a smiling girl extending her arms forward.
Two sisters have finally been reunited with a plane their father built 90 years ago, that is also considered an important part of Canadian aviation history.
British Columbia's police oversight agency says there are no grounds for criminal charges against four Mounties after a man's arm was broken during an arrest on Vancouver Island.
Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.
People going through the security checkpoint for domestic travellers at Vancouver International Airport no longer have to remove some items from their carry-on bags.
Two people are dead following an early-morning shooting at a park in a quiet neighbourhood in Keswick, York Regional Police say. Police confirmed just before 11 a.m. that they were investigating a double homicide at Bayview Park. YRP said they responded to the sounds of gunshots at the park just before 7:30 a.m.
Rogers Communications Inc. is buying out Bell's 37.5 per cent share of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment for $4.7 billion, giving it 75 per cent ownership of the sports conglomerate.
Video of a brazen daylight auto theft which shows a suspect running over a victim in a stolen luxury SUV has been released by police west of Toronto.
A heavy police presence could be seen at a property in the southeast Calgary community of Valleyfield on Wednesday.
A Calgary man has been charged with sexual assault and sexual interference in relation to an incident with a 12-year-old child that took place in the southeast Calgary community of Walden.
Alberta's transportation minister says the City of Calgary's decision to wind down the Green Line LRT project is "unfortunate鈥 鈥 but he isn鈥檛 completely closing the door on the transit initiative.
Photographs of eyeglasses with an apparent broken arm, a purse with a "severed" strap and a reusable bag filled with groceries at the bottom of a staircase were among those shown to the jury at the first-degree murder trial of Hamid Ayoub Wednesday morning.
A search is underway in the Ottawa River for a 30-year-old woman reported missing while kayaking near Pembroke, Ont.
Ottawa City Council has voted to maintain O-Train Line 1 service at current levels to give OC Transpo additional time to study ridership patterns this fall.
A 29-year-old Quebec woman is facing a first-degree murder charge in the death of a five-year-old boy southwest of Montreal.
Thanks to a generous donation, the Montreal Children鈥檚 Hospital will now be able to double the number of cancer trials it offers to young patients.
For the first time in nine months, Christian Boivin and his family say they're encouraged that Montreal police arrested four people suspected of selling the kind of drugs that killed their 15 year-old son, Mathis Boivin, last year.
A 52-year-old man is facing sexual assault charges in connection with the assault of a teen boy.
A man wanted in connection with the death of his partner has been arrested.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's plan to spend billions of dollars to fast-track school building across the province will come with a new program to fund private school construction.
Transport Canada has ordered a bankrupt tidal power company and a bankruptcy trustee to produce a plan to remove four huge moorings abandoned in the water near Walton, N.S.
A Woods Harbour, N.S., man is facing dozens of charges after police seized weapons and drugs from South Shore homes last Friday.
A streak of sunny and hot mid-September weather set new high temperatures records in the Maritimes.
More than $300,000 worth of stolen vehicles were seized from a Winnipeg compound earlier this month, police announced Wednesday.
Southern Manitoba was hit with torrential downpours, overland flooding and thunderstorms at the start of the week, with some communities receiving upwards of 200 millimetres (mm) of rain.
At 100 years old, Shirley Bird was one of the youngest celebrants at a group birthday party for residents at a Transcona-area care home on Wednesday.
Alena Marie Pestuch has plead guilty to charges in relation to the theft of over $4 million in an investment scheme beginning in 2006.
The Government of Saskatchewan has said it will not accept asylum seekers under a recent federal proposal to relocate them across Canada.
Fraudulent phone calls targeting older people are circulating the Pilot Butte, Sask. area, RCMP said.
Police are hoping the public can help them locate three missing people from Kitchener.
A new project at a Kitchener, Ont. school is giving staff and students hope it will lead to a cleaner - and brighter - future
Two people have been arrested, and three others are still at large in connection with a door-to-door sales fraud that police said victimized more than 200 people across Ontario.
May 9, 2022 was the day Blayne McKay thought he was going to die. He called his wife to say goodbye, after getting electrocuted at the SaskPower Island Falls Hydroelectric Station, about 100 kilometres northwest of Flin Flon.
A 14-year-old student who allegedly set her classmate on fire is facing a new charge.
Catherine Sanche says her cousin and best friend Emily Sanche never feared her boyfriend Thomas Hamp would hurt her in the weeks leading up to her death in February 2022.
A detour is now available after Highway 101 closed in both directions between Foleyet and Highway 144, police said Wednesday.
North Bay Police Service says one person has died following an industrial accident at the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission Rail Yard on Tuesday.
Security video shows a man breaking into a thrift store operated by a Sudbury animal rescue and stealing items from a jewelry case Tuesday morning.
Fanshawe College is being sued over supposed deficiencies in its paralegal program. A proposed class action seeks $10 million in damages on behalf of hundreds of students enrolled in the college's paralegal program since 2020.
Around 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, September 10, OPP, EMS, and local fire services were called to the scene of a two-vehicle collision on Egremont Road in Warwick Township.
Neil Lumsden has signed his organ donor card for decades, so the decision to do his part for concussion research was a no-brainer.
A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.
Check your lottery tickets because someone who purchased a ticket in Grey County is an overnight multi-millionaire, having won half of the historic lottery jackpot.
York Regional Police say two people are dead after a shooting at a park in the community of Keswick.
Local high school students have been granted a unique opportunity through their enhanced construction program.
The heat and dryness is making September feel like the dog days of summer.
Windsor police are asking for the public鈥檚 help to identify two suspects involved in a $64,000 bank fraud investigation.
British Columbia's police oversight agency says there are no grounds for criminal charges against four Mounties after a man's arm was broken during an arrest on Vancouver Island.
Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.
British Columbia Health Minister Adrian Dix says minimum nurse-to-patient ratios meant to improve care and strengthen the health-care system have now been established for most hospital settings.
Animal protection officers in British Columbia have rescued three pit bulls 鈥 including one that gave birth to 10 puppies 鈥 from a rat-infested home in Kelowna.
More than a year after a missing Kamloops, B.C., woman鈥檚 body was found, her son has been arrested and charged with her murder, Mounties announced Friday.
A woman suffered life-threatening injuries after being stabbed during a home invasion in Kelowna, according to authorities.
Lethbridge residents who live near the police range can expect to hear plenty of shots fired Wednesday and Thursday.
The City of Lethbridge's encampment response team continues to see a rise in the number of people experiencing homelessness throughout the summer months.
Two 16-year-old boys have been charged with arson following a fire at a Lethbridge building earlier this month.
North Bay Police Service says one person has died following an industrial accident at the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission Rail Yard on Tuesday.
Three northern Ontario residents are charged with drug trafficking after the vehicle they were in got stuck along a bush road off Highway 17 on Monday.
A 50-year-old man in the Sault has been charged following an assault on Saturday that involved the use of a hammer.
Newfoundland and Labrador's chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
A 16-year-old biennial event aimed at fostering business in the country's eastern Arctic and northern regions has been cancelled indefinitely as a dispute unfolds between Inuit in Canada and a Labrador group claiming to share their heritage.
Jim Lester鈥檚 farm hopped on the cow-cuddling trend in early August, and his time slots have been pretty well sold out ever since.
The Shopping Trends team is independent of the journalists at CTV News. We may earn a commission when you use our links to shop.聽Read about us.
