Click on this bird. It’s a very handsome bird, indeed. But there’s more than just good looks to this Polynesian foul. It’s related to one of the top 10 archaeological finds of the year, according to Archeology magazine.

Scholars have long assumed the Spaniards first introduced chickens to the New World along with horses, pigs, and cattle. But now radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis of a chicken bone excavated from a site in Chile suggest Polynesians in oceangoing canoes brought chickens to the west coast of South America well before Europe’s “Age of Discovery.”

Check out the other big finds from last year, ranging from chimp tools to early squash seeds. It was a good year.