Textbook story of how early humans populated America is 'biologically unviable,' study finds

[StrictlyRockers]

The established theory about the route by which Ice Age peoples first reached the present-day United States has been challenged by an unprecedented study which concludes that their supposed entry route was "biologically unviable".

The first people to reach the Americas crossed via an ancient land bridge between Siberia and Alaska but then, according to conventional wisdom, had to wait until two huge ice sheets that covered what is now Canada started to recede, creating the so-called "ice-free corridor" which enabled them to move south.

In a new study published in the journal Nature, however, an international team of researchers used ancient DNA extracted from a crucial pinch-point within this corridor to investigate how its ecosystem evolved as the glaciers began to retreat. They created a comprehensive picture showing how and when different flora and fauna emerged and the once ice-covered landscape became a viable passageway. No prehistoric reconstruction project like it has ever been attempted before.

The researchers conclude that while people may well have travelled this corridor after about 12,600 years ago, it would have been impassable earlier than that, as the corridor lacked crucial resources, such as wood for fuel and tools, and game animals which were essential to the hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

If this is true, then it means that the first Americans, who were present south of the ice sheets long before 12,600 years ago, must have made the journey south by another route. The study's authors suggest that they probably migrated along the Pacific coast.


Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-08-textbook-story-humans-populated-america.html#jCp

[TheBlackAdder]

1. New studies, on JSTOR, show the Inuit and other traveled from Europe on small boats, resting on ice.

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DNA and technologies used either from the Clovis Spearhead finds, and other art do not substantiate a Siberian Land Bridge crossing or other travels from the east to North America. DNA is more related to Europeaners, the technology of the spearheads unearthed match technologies used in Europe.


The new hypothesis is that the North Atlantic was partially covered in ice and there were many broken ice blocks floating in the waters. The Inuit showed it is possible to travel great distances in a small boat by ice hopping, lifting the boat onto floating ice and then hunting for fish and other mammals, and then traveling on to the next one.


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[Ready4Change]

2. I agree with this.

I think they are underestimating ancient peoples ability to travel long distances on small craft. Hinging theories solely on land bridges is ignoring how ancient peoples had to travel via small craft in order to populate Indonesia and Australia.

[kurt_cagle]

3. Water passage makes far more sense

I've believed this for a while. The PNW is filled with decorations reflective of sea-faring cultures in Asia dating back thousands of years, cultures that had clearly developed muscle and (perhaps wind) driven boats. They would likely not travel far from land, but they would most likely follow whales, smaller cetacaeans and the fish that they herded, so it's not hard to imagine them following the Bering island chain both before and after it formed into a land bridge. This is not to say that there weren't human inhabitants of Beringia once it was able to support and ecosystem, but more than likely this was a colony way-point for a culture that had settlements all up and down the coasts of Western Canada and Washington state.