30 Indonesian Women Settled Madagascar

Despite its proximity to Africa, the original continent for our species, the large island of Madagascar was not settled until about 1,200 years ago, making it one of the last natural bastions to be conquered by humans. New studies show a group of just 30 Indonesian women populated this land. 

Scientists have always wondered about why this island displays such rich biodiversity, and why such unusual animals populate it. The answer appears to be very simple – evolution was allowed to follow its natural course here without human interference, LiveScience reports.

Experts from the Massey University believe that a vessel carrying a small group of Indonesian women – as few as 30 – capsized near Madagascar. The survivors were the ones who populated this land, which might explain how an entire culture was trans-located across the entire Indian Ocean. 

Of the original group, experts calculated that 28 were Indonesian and two were African. These precise numbers were extracted from analyses conducted on the mitochondrial DNA of 300 native Madagascans and 3,000 Indonesians.

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