The domestic sweet potato (lpomoea batatas) descends from a wild plant native to South America. It also populates the Polynesian Islands, where evidence confirms that Native Hawaiians and other Indigenous peoples were cultivating the plant centuries before seafaring first occurred over the thousands of miles of ocean separating them from South America. To explain how the sweet potato was first introduced in Polynesian, botanist Pablo Munoz-Rodriguez and colleagues analyzed the DNA of numerous varieties of the plant, concluding that Polynesian varieties diverged from South American ones over 100,000 years ago. Given that Polynesian was peopled only in the last three thousand years, the team concluded that _________

Which choice most logically completes the text?

Question

Accepted Answer

human activity likely played no role in the introduction of the sweet potato in Polynesian.

Answer

the cultivation of the sweet potato in Polynesian likely predates its cultivation in South America.

Answer

Polynesian peoples likely acquired the sweet potato from South American peoples only within the last three thousand years.

Answer

Polynesian sweet potato varieties likely descend from a single South American variety that was domesticated, not wild.