The remains of 3,000-year-old pigs, dogs and chickens are helping scientists trace the path of human colonisation in the Pacific Ocean, it was disclosed yesterday.

Researchers say they are using cutting-edge techniques to examine the DNA and shape of the bones and teeth of ancient animals known to have travelled with the first colonists.

The data is then compared with living specimens to try to establish a link.

The team, from the universities of Aberdeen and Durham, hopes to use the information to reconstruct early settlers' original migration routes.

Various contradictory theories claim the people who first colonised the Pacific came from either the Chinese mainland, Taiwan or other islands of south east Asia and travelled through the Philippines towards the islands of the Pacific.

But the preliminary data from the new studies contradicts these claims. The new research suggests that early colonists, or at least the domestic pigs they transported, originated somewhere in Vietnam or south west China and migrated through the southern Indonesian island chain.

Study leader Keith Dobney, a professor at the University of Aberdeen, said: "The invention of farming appears to have triggered a rapid spread of a new way of life across the globe.

"The first colonisers of one of the largest oceans on the planet were not only adventurers but also farmers who carried with them this new farming package, comprising domesticated plants and animals.