Pre-Clovis Americans
Posted on | April 4, 2008
A new discovery of coprolites in Oregon pushes back the earliest known human population in North America to fourteen thousand years ago:
The petrified poop — coprolites to scientists — is yielding a look at the diet of these ancient Americans, Jenkins said.
While the analysis is not yet complete, he said there are bones of squirrels, bison hair, fish scales, protein from birds and dogs and the remains of plants such as grass and sunflowers.
The oldest of several coprolites studied is 14,340 calendar years old, said co-author Eske Willerslev, director of the Centre for Ancient Genetics at Denmark‘s University of Copenhagen.
“The Paisley Cave material represents, to the best of my knowledge, the oldest human DNA obtained from the Americas,” he said. “Other pre-Clovis sites have been claimed, but no human DNA has been obtained.”
The date for the new coprolites is similar to that of Monte Verde in southern Chile, where human artifacts have been discovered, added Willerslev…
Neat-o.
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