Humans may have settled North America much earlier than believed
The history of the people of America, a story that dates back to the last ice age, has been upended by the battered bones of a mastodon found under a freeway construction site in California.
Archaeological sites in North America have led most researchers to believe that the continent was first reached by humans like us, Homo sapiens, about 15,000 years ago. But inspection of the broken mastodon bones, and large stones lying with them, point to a radical new date for the arrival of ancient humans. If the claim stands up, humans arrived in the New World 130,000 years ago.
Thomas Deméré, curator of palaeontology at the San Diego Natural History Museum which led the project, said: “Of course extraordinary claims like this require extraordinary evidence,” adding that the team believed “the site preserves such evidence”. Anticipating the disbelief of many experts in the field, Steven Holen, another project scientist at the Center for Paleolithic Research, said: “I know people will be sceptical about this.” That caution was summed up by one scientist who preferred not to be named: “They are going to face a $#@!storm,” he said.