The cuy: an Andean domesticate described in 1590, renamed conejo de Indias, and traced by ancient DNA

Acosta's Seville imprint of 1590 describes the guinea pig on the page — a common little animal of the Peruvian sierra called cuy, held for very good eating and offered most frequently in sacrifices — and Alcedo in 1786 records the Spanish name conejo de Indias and a Quito lake named for it. A 2020 study of forty-six ancient mitogenomes dates and routes the animal: a probable second domestication centre in Colombia, Caribbean voyages from about AD 600, one European specimen of 1550–1640.