https://www.nationalgeographic.....com/history/article
"Spanning a million square miles and dotted with more than 700 islands, the Caribbean Sea was one of the last places colonized by Native Americans as they explored and settled North and South America. Archaeologists have long struggled to pinpoint the origins and movements of those intrepid seafarers. Now, thanks to genetic material gleaned from the bones of ancient Caribbean residents, the invisible history of this tropical archipelago is coming to light.

Among the surprising findings is that most of the Caribbean’s original inhabitants may have been wiped out by South American newcomers a thousand years before the Spanish invasion that began in 1492. Moreover, indigenous populations of islands like Puerto Rico and Hispaniola were likely far smaller at the time of the Spanish arrival than previously thought.

Extracting DNA from bones in warm, wet places like the Caribbean was impossible until a few years ago. But thanks to recent advances in genetic technology, a Harvard University lab run by geneticist David Reich was able to recover DNA from 174 individuals excavated at sites from Venezuela to the Bahamas."