Humans reached Americas 100,000 years earlier than thought

[Incorrigible1]

Thought this worthy of a new thread.

 

http://www.nature.com/news/controversial-study-claims-humans-reached-americas-100-000-years-earlier-than-thought-1.21886

 

Controversial study claims humans reached Americas 100,000 years earlier than thought

Broken mastodon bones hint that Homo sapiens wasn’t the first hominin to get to the New World.

 

Ancient humans settled in North America around 130,000 years ago, suggests a controversial study — pushing the date back more than 100,000 years earlier than most scientists accept. The jaw-dropping claim, made in Nature¹, is based on broken rocks and mastodon bones found in California that a team of researchers say point to human activity.

 

Their contention, if correct, would force a dramatic rethink of when and how the Americas were first settled — and who by. Most scientists subscribe to the view that Homo sapiens arrived in North America less than 20,000 years ago. The latest study raises the possibility that another hominin species, such as Neanderthals or a group known as Denisovans, somehow made it from Asia to North America before that and flourished.

[Guest Stan Norton]

This is causing quite a stir in Paleolithic academia here in the UK I can tell you.  Hard to conclude Neanderthal unless sophisticated stone tools found so may, if confirmed, point to another hominin species. Very very interesting!

[norseman]

Great find Inc! Thank you!

[Trogluddite]

Arrived in North America 100,000 years earlier than previously believed, but only got to Central and South America in the last 20,000 years due to traffic in LA, probably...

Edited April 27, 2017 by Trogluddite

[FarArcher]

And folks wonder why I discount paleoanthropology.

 

It used to be 10,000 years ago.  Then it moved to 15,000 years ago as they got with paleoclimatologists. 

 

But in South America, they found ruins and evidence that pushed it to 30,000 years ago - kicking and screaming the whole way.  And I would draw criticism when I'd mention the Native Americans/American Indians had pushed off those before them.

 

Now?  A hundred thousand years ago?  

 

Next thing, the crappy "Out of Africa" narrative will be blown out of the water.

[gigantor]

^^^  That's how science works, you form a hypothesis based on available data...  and test it until new information invalidates it. No theory is set in stone, ever.

 

---------

 

Very interesting finding, although I'm not too exited considering the hypothesis "is based on broken rocks and mastodon bones found in California that a team of researchers say point to human activity. "

 

The researchers could simply be wrong, probably are if they're hanging their hat on such a weak link. It sounds like the global warming "hockey stick" hypothesis which was based on a few petrified tree rings analysis to deduce the historical climate data for the entire planet. It's a big joke today.

 

The validity rate of new studies is pretty low after many eyeballs look at it...  see http://retractionwatch.com/

 

yet the BF enthusiast in me hopes it's true.

 

[kitakaze]

Very interesting. Far from conclusive, but hopefully more reliable supporting evidence can be found.

 

Thanks for posting this, Incorrigible1.

[WSA]

Probably just another hominid species we haven't identified yet. The woods are full of them. We'll keep finding them, smart money says. Our family bush just gets bushier. It might also be a case of non-convergence in separate lines of descent. Probably both. Our H. sapien centrist view of life is remarkably resilient though. You'd think that such discoveries, and especially those with more definitive evidence, would give John Q Public some reason to pause and take stock of other probabilities. Probably not!

 

 

[norseman]

It lends more credibility to calico and other digs in which the evidence didn't fit the conventional wisdom.

 

http://calicoarchaeology.com/index.html

[WSA]

Lee Berger: Almost Human. Can't wait. 

[JDL]

Anything that ends in ology is open to interpretation and revision.  

 

Ology does not mean "the science of...", it means "the study of..."

 

Includes Anthropology. 

[SWWASAS]

I almost laughed at the one scientist thinking that Neanderthals could not survive the arctic voyage between Siberia and Alaska.      What voyage?   They likely walked along the edge of the arctic ice field covering most of the Northern  America.    If not only the last ice age but possibly the one before that.    They happen about every 65,000 years which neatly coincides with a 100,000 to 130,000 years ago date.  .  During ice ages,  humans very existence was survival at the edge of such ice fields be it off the mountains in Europe or those in Asia.     Where the Ice shield met the ocean was much milder than inland.     Just compare the temperatures in Anchorage Alaska with Minneapolis in the winter.    Minnesotans can go and warm up in Alaska.    Not only were terrestrial animals pushed to the edge of the ice fields available as food, but seals and other aquatic animals were available as food sources from the ocean.         

[Guest Stan Norton]

Some thoughts on the dating methodologies used. Quite technical (unsurprisingly...) but gives a flavour of the rigour needing to be applied to what is one hell of a claim.

 

http://archaeometer.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/extraordinary-claims-require.html?m=1

[FarArcher]

 

 

Theoretically, they should work if you consider only superficial principles - but that's how it's supposed to work in a perfect laboratory controlled environment - 

 

If these methods were so reliable, it would be a simple manner to cross check the various methods with others that overlap the date set.  And they're all over the map.  The variances within those dating methods - one might as well ask a third grader to pick some numbers.

 

As far as that migration foolishness - I've spent some real time in every corner of Alaska one wishes to mention.  During an "Ice Age," or especially during the last Ice Age - Alaska wasn't even covered in ice!  It missed most of Alaska!  

 

They seem to think it's a piece of cake walking hundreds and hundreds of miles without liquid water, without cover, without food, and mostly - without a map.  Why would anyone, or anything EVER go into more and more ice - and into harsher and harsher conditions - when there's no draw - no destination?

 

These "experts" are uninformed, inexperienced, and grasping at the impossible to push a narrative.

Edited May 6, 2017 by WV FOOTER
Edit Objectionable Text

[SWWASAS]

That migration across the Bering straits is at least comprehensible.    They perhaps gradually moved along the coastline seeking more seals etc.      Mankind pretty much has always exterminated local animal food sources then have to move on to find more.       The migration that I cannot comprehend is the one that swept SE out of Asia. then turned to the West when they started island hopping and ended up crossing the Pacific into South America.       The Pacific Ocean is a big pond.      Science gives the Polynesians credit since island hopping is part of their history.     Do you know that the flight from the West Coast of the US to Hawaii is the longest overwater airline flight in the world that does not have any emergency place to land?       There are no islands out there much beyond the coast of California until you get to the Hawaiian Islands.     Nothing but water.     That flight is a very long one when you are in a two engine airplane and have to plan for engine failure at some point along the way.