India, March 11 -- Hundreds of years before the Inca Empire, vibrant Amazonian parrots were transported alive across the Andes to coastal Peru, a new study has revealed.

This highlights a sophisticated pre-Inca, long-distance trade network spanning rainforest, highlands and deserts, according to a statement by The Australian National University (ANU).

An international team of researchers, including scientists from ANU analysed parrot feathers that were discovered at Pachacamac in Peru - one of the preeminent religious centres of Andean civilisation - far outside the birds' native rainforest range. The research has been published in Nature Communications.

By combining ancient DNA sequencing, isotope chemistry and computational landscape...