BEIJING, June 5 (Xinhuanet) -- Chicken bones recently unearthed on the coast of Chile — dating prior to Christopher Columbus’ "discovery" of America and resembling the DNA of a fowl species native to Polynesia —challenge the notion Europeans werethe first outsiders to discover the New World, researchers say.

"Chickens could not have gotten to South America on their own — they had to be taken by humans," said anthropologist Lisa Matisoo-Smith from the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Polynesians made contact with the west coast of South America as much as a century before any Spanish conquistadors, her findings imply.

The chicken bones were found alongside other material belonging to the indigenous population at El Arenal, an archaeological site on the south coast of Chile. Although chickens aren't native to the region, it was believed the local Araucana species found there now was brought to the Americas by Spanish settlers around 1500.

Tests on the bones indicate the birds arrived well before any European made landfall in South America, Matisoo-Smith and her colleague Alice Storey found.

"We had the chicken bone directly dated by radio carbon. The calibrated date was clearly prior to 1492," Matisoo-Smith told LiveScience, noting that it could have ranged anywhere from 1304 to 1424. "This also fits with the other dates obtained from the site (on other material), and it fits with the cultural period of the site."

DNA extracted from the bones also matched closely with a Polynesian breed of chicken, rather than any chickens found in Europe.

The results are detailed in the latest issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

(Agencies)