A study of pigs' teeth carried out by academics in the region could rewrite the history books.

Academics from Durham University and their counterparts from Oxford have examined DNA from the hair of modern swine and compared it with material collected from the teeth and jaws of ancient museum specimens.

The results, they say, shed new light on the history of human migration in the Pacific and show that, contrary to longstanding assumptions, ancient settlers from Vietnam may have been responsible for colonising the entire region, travelling to New Guinea, Hawaii and French Polynesia.

The researchers found that modern Vietnamese wild boar and wild pigs on the islands of Sumatra, Java, and New Guinea, share a common genetic heritage with ancient Lapita pigs in Oceania and other ancient breeds across the Pacific. The study results, published in the academic journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, contradict established models of migration which say the ancestors of Pacific islanders originated in Taiwan or islands off South-East Asia, and travelled along routes that pass through the Philippines as they dispersed into the remote Pacific.

Lead author of the paper Dr Greger Larson, who is due to join Durham University in August, said: "Pigs are good swimmers, but not good enough to reach Hawaii.

"Given the distances between islands, pigs must have been transported and are thus excellent proxies of human movement. In this case, they have helped us open a new window into the history of human colonization of the Pacific.

"We are confident that this research will inspire geneticists and archaeologists to consider both alternative colonization routes, and more complex, and perhaps more accurate, theories about the nature of human colonization and the animals they carried with them."