Ancient Islanders Visited by Columbus Not 'Extinct,' Study Finds
By sequencing DNA in a 1,000-year-old tooth, researchers were able to find genetic matches between ancient and living populations in the Caribbean.
When Christopher Columbus reached the Caribbean in the 15th century, indigenous communities referred to as Taínos were heavily impacted—so much so that the region's history is often divided by historians as pre- and post-arrival.
A combination of disease, mass killings, and slavery killed as many as three million people in only a few generations, but a new study suggests that the genocide didn't lead to complete extinction as some suspected.
Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers say the DNA of pre-Columbus indigenous populations is found in living people.
"It shows that the true story is one of assimilation, certainly, but not total extinction," said Jorge Estevez from the National Museum of the American Indian, in a
