New clues suggest people reached the Americas around 30,000 years ago

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Wow. They keep finding new evidence that the Americas were populated at an earlier date.

Humans may have inhabited what’s now southern Mexico surprisingly early, between 33,448 and 28,279 years ago, researchers say.
If so, those people arrived more than 10,000 years before folks often tagged as the first Americans (SN: 7/11/18). Other preliminary evidence puts humans in central Mexico as early as around 33,000 years ago (SN: 7/22/20).

The latest evidence comes from animal bones that biological anthropologist and archaeologist Andrew Somerville and two Mexican colleagues found stored in a Mexico City lab. The bones had been excavated in the 1960s at a rock-shelter called Coxcatlan Cave.

Radiocarbon analyses of six rabbit bones from the site’s deepest sediment yielded unexpectedly old ages, the researchers report online May 19 in Latin American Antiquity. That sediment also contained chipped and sharp-edged stones regarded as tools by the site’s lead excavator.
Higher sediment layers yielded clearer examples of stone tools and other remnants of human activity dating to nearly 9,900 years ago.  Somerville, of Iowa State University in Ames, initially suspected that rabbit bones from the deepest sediment were perhaps around 12,000 years old. But analyses revealed they were much older, hinting humans were living in the cave roughly 30,000 years ago.

Findings like this are hard. Think about all the places you have gone camping, and what evidence that you were ever there remaining for even a few years, much less 30,000!

I have seen some reports of hominids in N. America as early as 130,000 years ago, but they were not homo homo sapians, most likely another homo species.

When you talk about "first people," in N. America, I think the age will continue to get pushed back. Folks made it to Australia all the way from Africa back to 40,000 years. So I guess anything is possible to N. America.

I live in an area of Pennsylvania where a cave near me has humans living there back to 13,000 years. It is wonderful to think that those folks were walking around on the same ground as I do so long ago. Raise your glass to humans! We do a pretty good job of moving around.

a reply to: Havamal

Curious to know if they think the migration was via Asia or Europe.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

I have seen evidence for both. It is still under study. I do know they found some DNA on the east coast of N. Ameria that is pretty old and looks like Europe. More to come...as we learn more.

After researching a lot on the human body and different aspects of metabolism and brain function...I tend to think that Hominoids evolved from some sort of small scavenger dinosaur. I think the apes may have evolved from them too. Our tailbone is more like a birds tail. Properties of our blood are found in birds and reptiles, very rarely are they found in mammals except for a particular white footed mouse....one that they use to test on for human meds and chemistries quite often. Being a mouse I had to mention that.

If all hominids evolved from a specific class of dinosaurs millions of years ago would science be able to prove it? Of course not, we share seventy some percent of our DNA with dinosaurs, lots of animals do. So even though people have theories about this they would be impossible to prove.

Take "Human " Lightly = Rewind to 30,000 years ago. As well as modern humans, three other hominin species were around: the Neanderthals in Europe and western Asia, the Denisovans in Asia, and the "hobbits" from the Indonesian island of Flores. The Neanderthals were displaced very soon after modern humans encroached on their habitat

a human being, especially a person as distinguished from an animal = mho = these are not human , they are still animals.. So no = The First Humans in the US were the Clovis people..

The Clovis culture is a prehistoric Paleoamerican culture, named for distinct stone tools found in close association with Pleistocene fauna at Blackwater Locality No. 1 near Clovis, New Mexico in the 1920s and 1930s. It appears around 11,500–11,000 uncalibrated RCYBP[1] at the end of the last glacial period, and is characterized by the manufacture of "Clovis points" and distinctive bone and ivory tools. Archaeologists' most precise determinations at present suggest this radiocarbon age is equal to roughly 13,200 to 12,900 calendar years ago. Clovis people are considered to be the ancestors of most of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.[2][3][4] en.wikipedia.org...

a reply to: Havamal

Link to your relativesa reply to: rickymouse

Humans share this amount of DNA with:

Neanderthal 99.7%
Chimps 98.8%
Gorilla 98.4%
pig 98%
Orangutan 96.9%
Cat 90%
Mouse 85%
Dog 84%
Cow 80%
Zebrafish 73%
Slug 70%
chicken 65%
Fruit flies 61%
Banana 60%
Tree 50%
Cabbage 45%
Honey bee 44%
Apple 40%
Yeast 26%
Daffodil 25%

a reply to: hdchop

Interesting. When did the homo homo sapiens become "human" and not "animals?" When they first left Africa about 150,000 years ago? Subsequent migrations? At what point in your estimate were we people?

rickymouse

Humans share this amount of DNA with:

Neanderthal 99.7%
Chimps 98.8%
Gorilla 98.4%
Pig 98%
Orangutan 96.9%
Cat 90%
Mouse 85%
Dog 84%
Cow 80%
Zebrafish 73%
Slug 70%
chicken 65%
Fruit flies 61%
Banana 60%
Tree 50%
Cabbage 45%
Honey bee 44%
Apple 40%
Yeast 26%
Daffodil 25%

That will explain some of the strange types of 'humans' that live in my village then.

a reply to: Moohide

And my kids, and several other relatives...

a reply to: Havamal

The Meadowcroft rock shelter near Avella, PA is an interesting place to visit. The data was not originally accepted by the establishment big dogs as it conflicted with their published papers. It only takes a few big dogs to squelch things that they disagree with.

a reply to: Havamal

Uh -Oh what does this do to the status of “ native americans”? Always thought that was a stupid label anyone born here is a native american.Everyone tool the land from someone it is called progress.

originally posted by: Moohide


That will explain some of the strange types of 'humans' that live in my village then.

I sat and watched the bumblebeess around my house and wondered if I will come back as one of them if I am reincarnated, it would be a step up from being human I think. They seem to be really smart and they seem to talk to others somehow.

Too bad they have such a slave driving women they are trying to impress. I guess that won't really change much.

Here's some evidence of human civilizations in India from at least 32,000 years ago.

m.youtube.com...

originally posted by: hdchop
Take "Human " Lightly = Rewind to 30,000 years ago. As well as modern humans, three other hominin species were around: the Neanderthals in Europe and western Asia, the Denisovans in Asia, and the "hobbits" from the Indonesian island of Flores. The Neanderthals were displaced very soon after modern humans encroached on their habitat

a human being, especially a person as distinguished from an animal = mho = these are not human , they are still animals.. So no = The First Humans in the US were the Clovis people..

The Clovis culture is a prehistoric Paleoamerican culture, named for distinct stone tools found in close association with Pleistocene fauna at Blackwater Locality No. 1 near Clovis, New Mexico in the 1920s and 1930s. It appears around 11,500–11,000 uncalibrated RCYBP[1] at the end of the last glacial period, and is characterized by the manufacture of "Clovis points" and distinctive bone and ivory tools. Archaeologists' most precise determinations at present suggest this radiocarbon age is equal to roughly 13,200 to 12,900 calendar years ago. Clovis people are considered to be the ancestors of most of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.[2][3][4] en.wikipedia.org...

a reply to: Havamal

The Clovis Culture Followed the Solutrean Culture that Walked and Sailed along the Atlantic Ice Sheet 35 Thousand Years Ago to Northy America . Sorry .

a reply to: hdchop

The Clovis culture is a prehistoric Paleoamerican culture, named for distinct stone tools found in close association with Pleistocene fauna at Blackwater Locality No. 1 near Clovis, New Mexico in the 1920s and 1930s. It appears around 11,500–11,000 uncalibrated RCYBP[1] at the end of the last glacial period, and is characterized by the manufacture of "Clovis points" and distinctive bone and ivory tools. Archaeologists' most precise determinations at present suggest this radiocarbon age is equal to roughly 13,200 to 12,900 calendar years ago. Clovis people are considered to be the ancestors of most of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

I had the distinct pleasure of working under Dr. George Agigino at Blackwater draw as an undergrad student at ENMU.
We always thought 12k 13k dating was a conservative estimate. When on highway 70 between Portales and Clovis, stop in a the blackwater draw museum. Anthro was my first love and wanted to be a research academic but life had other ideas for my future.

Now.....livin the dream!