squash! These are very good points Katherine. And the genetic evidence? South American fowl couldn't have come with the Europeans because the genetic difference between them and their nearest relatives in Saipan and Rapanui are too divergent from one another. It took many thousands of generations of genetic isolation to perpetuate their unique signatures.
The South American stock brought from Peru to Japan had a major problem once DNA was affordable enough to use as a tool. They had to dump upwards of forty percent of the pioneer stock because those birds had been admixtured with domestic fowl of the Mediterranean genome. In a matter of a few hundred years the stock had been almost obliterated by interbreeding with the European chickens. In trials the authors crossed Green jf to bankiva and spadiceus females and determined that it took at least 1500 years to arrive at the Rapanui 'species' threshold. It is genetically so distinctive it was actually described as Gallus violaceous. The colloncas and quechua hens appeared genetically to be derived from Rapanui hens but the colloncas had genetic markers from a unique group of domestic fowl only found in Saipan and the Phillipines.
Yamashina determined that the Peruvians must have had more than one source of domestic fowl but suggested that like the Oceanic islands, the entire population of fowls of a given culture may have originated from no more than a handful of founders.
He explained during the congress that he believed that no more than twenty or forty pioneer fowl arrived in South America from Rapanui and that event may have only occured two or three times based on the genetics of the South American stock derived of Rapanui stock alone. THe blue egg came about due to a high degree of copper in the soil. Green jf lay a tinted egg that is effected by trace minerals and so on consumed in the crustaceans they eat. Alot of his colleagues pshawed his findings. But now the nuclear DNA has also been studied and his theory is very compelling. ALso, it should be noted,
that though these fowls are described as chickens none are larger than an Alectoris partridge. Ive actually examined skins of these specimens and a living bird as well. It was about the size and weight of a Chukar. If I were to find its bones I might think they were quail or partridge bones before thinking they were pheasant or junglefowl because of their diminutive size. If any of you have seen a pheasant a red jf is about the same size. THe South American and Easter Island fowl are roughly a quarter of that size. They do not make chicken sounds either.