Human Traces Found to Be Oldest in N. America

On Apr 3, 4:49 pm, Jack Linthicum <jacklinthi...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Apr 3, 8:13 am, Jack Linthicum <jacklinthi...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:



On Apr 3, 12:23 am, michaelrugg...@xxxxxxx wrote:

Listeros,
Archaeologists in Oregon have found fossilized human feces that appear
to be the oldest biological evidence of humans in North America. The
feces or coprolites in archaeological terms date back to 12,500 BCE,
pre-dating the Clovis people by 1000 years. DNA analysis of the
coprolites show the folks who lived in a cave in Oregon at 12,500 BCE
are closely related to modern Native Americans and come from Eastern
Asia. The coprolites were uncovered at Paisley Caves, 220 miles from
Portland.

There is some controversy in the findings since there were traces of
wolves, coyotes and foxes found in the coprolites as well meaning that
there could be some question about the actual age of the human DNA in
the coprolites.

The Seattle Times has the story here;

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004322592_weboldpoop...

I have made a tiny URL here;

http://tinyurl.com/ypb56f

Mike Ruggeri's The Ancient Americas Breaking Newshttp://web.mac.com/michaelruggeri

Mike Ruggeri's Pre-Clovis and Clovis Worldhttp://tinyurl.com/2m8725

Breaking Pre-Clovis and Clovis Newshttp://community-2.webtv.net/Topiltzin-2091/MikeRuggerisPre/index.html

Note that the Paisley Caves are about 200 miles inland from the Oregon
Coast. The implication that there was a significant movement away
from the coastal migration route as early as 14,300 years ago, is
significant.

abstract

Science 14 March 2008:
Vol. 319. no. 5869, pp. 1497 - 1502
DOI: 10.1126/science.1153569

Prev | Table of Contents | Next
Review
The Late Pleistocene Dispersal of Modern Humans in the Americas
Ted Goebel,1* Michael R. Waters,2 Dennis H. O'Rourke3

When did humans colonize the Americas? From where did they come and
what routes did they take? These questions have gripped scientists for
decades, but until recently answers have proven difficult to find.
Current genetic evidence implies dispersal from a single Siberian
population toward the Bering Land Bridge no earlier than about 30,000
years ago (and possibly after 22,000 years ago), then migration from
Beringia to the Americas sometime after 16,500 years ago. The
archaeological records of Siberia and Beringia generally support these
findings, as do archaeological sites in North and South America dating
to as early as 15,000 years ago. If this is the time of colonization,
geological data from western Canada suggest that humans dispersed
along the recently deglaciated Pacific coastline.

1 Center for the Study of the First Americans, Department of
Anthropology, Texas A&M University, 4352 TAMU, College Station, TX
77843-4352, USA.
2 Center for the Study of the First Americans, Departments of
Anthropology and Geography, Texas A&M University, 4352 TAMU, College
Station, TX 77843-4352, USA.
3 Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
84122-0060, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: goe...@xxxxxxxx

Not really solid spell checker but...http://www.uoregon.edu/~ftrock/index.php

2008 Summer Session
Northern Great Basin Prehistory Project
Archaeology Field School

* Welcome
* Field School Info
o History
o Course Description
o Enrollment and Fees
o Qualifications
o Apply Online
o Setting and Living Arrangements
o Required Tool Kit
o Personal Equipment
o Faculty and Staff
* Paisley Caves
o Paisley Caves Description
o Field School Photos
* Connley Caves
o Connley Caves Description
o Field School Photos
* Artifact Gallery
o Beads
o Bones
o Stone Tools
o Cordage
* Publications
* Other Links
o University of Oregon Home Page
o UO Anthropology Department
o Museum of Natural and Cultural History

Welcome!

In 2008, the University of Oregon Archaeological Field School will
return to the Sage Hen Gap Fluted Point site. The site is only the
second in Oregon to produce multiple fluted points, documtating human
activity in the late ploistocene early Holocene interface.

The field school has been conducting research at Sage Hen gap, Redmond
Caves, Paisley Caves, and Connley Caves under the direction of Dr.
Dennis L. Jenkins, who has supervised and directed the UO field school
since 1989.

The field school is now accepting online enrollment applications for
the Summer 2008 field session. Field school runs June 23-August 1,
2008.

Washington post video and map presentation. The site was about 4000
feet above sea level on the shore of an immense, freshwater lake
called Lake Chewaucan. The lake covered 461 square miles at depths of
up to 375 feet.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/03/AR2008040302156.html

Human Traces Found to Be Oldest in N. America
Remnants Provide New Clues in Debate Over Where and When Continent's
First Inhabitants Lived

By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 4, 2008; A02

Scientists have found and dated the oldest human remnants ever
uncovered in the Americas -- a discovery that places people
genetically similar to Native Americans in Oregon more than 14,000
years ago and 1,000 years earlier than previous estimates.

Using radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis, an international team
concluded that fossilized feces found five feet below the surface of
an arid cave are significantly older than any previous human remains
unearthed in the Americas.

The samples were discovered near a crude dart or spear tip chiseled
from obsidian, as well as bones of horses and camels that were then
common in the region. The researchers described their finding as a
"smoking gun" in the long-running debate over when and where humans
first inhabited the New World.

"What's so exciting here is that we have cells from real people, their
DNA, rather than samples of their work or technologies," said Dennis
Jenkins of the University of Oregon, who oversaw the dig. "And we have
them on the Oregon landscape 1,000 years before what used to be the
earliest samples of human remains in the Americas."

The discovery, published yesterday in the online edition of the
journal Science, is a blow to the widely held theory that the Clovis
culture -- named after a site in New Mexico where its distinct
artifacts and fluted spearheads were first identified in the 1930s --
was the first human presence in North America. Jenkins said that while
the human DNA found in Oregon could be from ancestors of the Clovis
culture, none of the distinctive Clovis technology has been found in
the region.

The "Clovis first" theory has been challenged by almost a decade of
discoveries from Canada to the southern tip of South America that
indicate that humans were present before the time of the Clovis
civilization, generally dated at about 13,000 years ago. But
yesterday's report is considered key because it is the first to
involve datable human DNA.

The discovery, however, is not without its critics. The cave has been
excavated in the past, leading some to wonder whether the newly found
samples were contaminated and mixed with other material. In addition,
some of the fossilized feces, called coprolites, contain canine DNA.

"I don't think we know for sure whether these are dog coprolites or
human," said Gary Haynes, an anthropologist at the University of
Nevada. "We know that Native Americans have used these sites for
centuries, and so their DNA could have gotten into the older dog feces
through urination."

The team rejects this possibility, saying there is too much human
protein in the oldest coprolites to be explained by later activities.
The team also says the presence of human hair in the coprolites makes
it almost irrelevant whether they came from humans or dogs, because
the two appeared to be living together.

If the discovery is ultimately confirmed and accepted by
anthropologists, it will also challenge the prevailing theory about
how humans spread across the Americas.

Most experts agree that the first American inhabitants came from
Siberia, traveling over what was then a land and ice bridge across the
Bering Strait to what is now Alaska, probably before 15,000 years ago.
Much of Canada was then covered by an ice sheet that would have made
it impossible to migrate southward.

Using geological and climate information, researchers have concluded
that a corridor of ice-free land opened in inland Canada between
13,000 and 12,000 years ago, and that the earliest inhabitants could
have made their way to the high plains of the United States by that
path. Humans are believed to have then spread quickly across North
America and then South America -- doing so in hundreds, rather than
thousands, of years.

But if very early humans lived in Oregon, that suggests they either
came directly from Asia by boat or traveled down the Pacific coastline
after crossing the land bridge.

While the origin of the newly discovered human DNA is an inevitable
source of jokes, researchers say coprolites are an important reservoir
of historical genetic information that can be mined with increasing
sophistication. Fourteen samples of the feces were sent to the
University of Copenhagen for DNA analysis, and six were found to have
human DNA. Using coprolites also avoids the sensitive issue of whether
Native American skeletal remains should be exhumed and studied.

According to DNA specialist Eske Willerslev, an author of the paper,
the newfound DNA was of a distinct Native American grouping -- similar
to some early people from Central Asia, but different in some
important ways. He said that because the DNA samples were broken and
as a result hard to read, the researchers could not be more specific
about the genetic makeup of the people. He said he sent samples to DNA
labs in Sweden and Germany that came back with the same results.

The fossilized waste was found in 2002 and 2003 in one of eight caves
and covered ledges along a ridge near Paisley in south-central Oregon.
(It is considered fossilized not because it is petrified but because
it is ancient and was found underground.) The site was first studied
in the 1930s as a home to early humans, but at the time researchers'
ability to analyze their finds was far more limited than it is today.

Jenkins said the feces were easy to identify. In the thin, fine dirt,
he said, the fossilized coprolites were unmistakable. "Basically, it
looks like what it is: poop," he said. "Dried up like that, it
maintains its shape and is very different from the surrounding soil."

Using more-controlled excavation methods, Jenkins and his team have
dug up other samples that will also undergo radiocarbon dating and DNA
analysis.
.

Relevant Pages

  • OLDEST BIOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF FIRST AMERICANS FOUND IN COPROLITES IN OREGON CAVE
    ... Archaeologists in Oregon have found fossilized human feces that appear ... to be the oldest biological evidence of humans in North America. ... coprolites show the folks who lived in a cave in Oregon at 12,500 BCE ...
    (sci.archaeology.mesoamerican)
  • OLDEST BIOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF FIRST AMERICANS FOUND IN COPROLITES IN OREGON CAVE
    ... Archaeologists in Oregon have found fossilized human feces that appear ... to be the oldest biological evidence of humans in North America. ... coprolites show the folks who lived in a cave in Oregon at 12,500 BCE ...
    (sci.archaeology)
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