Current Events > Archaeologists think humans may have arrived earlier than thought to Americas

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(features short image-text video)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/04/26/archaeology-shocker-study-claims-humans-reached-the-americas-130000-years-ago/?utm_term=.75195f9a1a53

Some 130,000 years ago, scientists say, a mysterious group of ancient people visited the coastline of what is now Southern California. More than 100,000 years before they were supposed to have arrived in the Americas, these unknown people used five heavy stones to break the bones of a mastodon.

If Deméré's analysis is accurate, it would set back the arrival date for hominins in the Americas and suggest that modern humans might not have been the first species to arrive. But the paper has raised skepticism among many researchers who study American prehistory. Several said this is a classic case of an extraordinary claim requiring extraordinary evidence — which they argue the Nature paper doesn’t provide.

“You can’t push human activity in the New World back 100,000 years based on evidence as inherently ambiguous as broken bones and nondescript stones,” said David Meltzer, an archaeologist at Southern Methodist University. “They need to do a better job showing nature could not be responsible for those bones and stones.”

“It is a bold claim,” Deméré acknowledged, “an order of magnitude older age than has been suggested.” But he asked his colleagues not to dismiss the research out of hand based only on a number.

“This evidence begs for some explanation,” he said, “and this is the explanation we’ve come up with.”

The rocks and mastodon remains were identified in 1992 by paleontologist Richard Cerutti, a colleague of Deméré's at the San Diego Museum of Natural History.

The lengthy article then goes on to say that the reasoning for attributing the findings to be that of humans early in the Americas, is via the breaks on the mastodon bones they found. They also go on to say that they are careful to speculate on the identity of the humans who may have been the cause of the tools thought to have been used on the mastodon.
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Native Americans stole the land
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So.... Some rocks fell on a Mastadon so humans showed up earlier? Either find human fossils that old or shut up. This is a case of someone trying to fit evidence to a theory rather than fitting a theory to evidence.
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Crazyman93 posted...

So.... Some rocks fell on a Mastadon so humans showed up earlier? Either find human fossils that old or shut up. This is a case of someone trying to fit evidence to a theory rather than fitting a theory to evidence.

Here's more from the article on how Dave Meltzer (no relation to professional wrestling journalist) takes it -

To some who study American prehistory, this interpretation of the Cerutti site beggars belief. Meltzer called the claim “grandiose.” Donald Grayson, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Washington, noted that history is rife with examples of scientists misinterpreting strange markings on stone as evidence of human activity. He pointed to the Calico Hills site in the Mojave Desert, which the archaeologist Louis Leakey believed contained 200,000-year-old stone tools. Subsequent studies have largely discredited Leakey's claim — the apparent tools were most likely “geofacts,” natural stone formations that only look like they were crafted by humans.

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Did they have any problems getting through customs?
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Apparently they used an atypical dating method on the bones which draws some skepticism about the accuracy of their data. It's an interesting find sure, but I think the measurements should be repeated by another group or through using a different method of geochronology.

Not only does it rewrite what we know about the earliest people in the Americas, but at that early date most Homo Sapiens were barely out of Africa. This finding is going to need some extraordinary evidence.
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ShinyMasamuneZ posted...

but at that early date most Homo Sapiens were barely out of Africa.

That's the thing, which is why it has monumental implications.
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Eventually they'll discover enough to prove all human life descended from orange-skinned ancestors who looked like potatoes with comb overs and the modern rise of Donald Trump will make so much more sense.

Blessed be all Tater Trump's children!
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ClockworkHare posted...

Eventually they'll discover enough to prove all human life descended from orange-skinned ancestors who looked like potatoes with comb overs and the modern rise of Donald Trump will make so much more sense.

Haha terrible, terrible!

SMH
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Short clip of the same material -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9c1Sfsja8Q

Slightly longer and more detailed video covering the overall relevant information regarding the findings -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyfSsgCrjb0
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ShinyMasamuneZ posted...

the measurements should be repeated by another group or through using a different method of geochronology.

This finding is going to need some extraordinary evidence.

yeah these. I have severe doubts about their findings
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FlashOfLight posted...

Some 130,000 years ago, scientists say, a mysterious group of ancient people visited the coastline of what is now Southern California. More than 100,000 years before they were supposed to have arrived in the Americas, these unknown people used five heavy stones to break the bones of a mastodon.

Crazyman93 posted...

So.... Some rocks fell on a Mastadon so humans showed up earlier? Either find human fossils that old or shut up. This is a case of someone trying to fit evidence to a theory rather than fitting a theory to evidence.

The earliest known Power Rangers.
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FlashOfLight posted...

said David Meltzer

If it turns out it wasn't because of humans he'll just claim "plans changed".
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Aliens
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FlashOfLight posted...

broken bones and nondescript stones

that's a cool album name
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ShinyMasamuneZ posted...

This finding is going to need some extraordinary evidence.

The only proof I'm going to take on it is human fossils to be honest. You want to say humans were here at x date, get fossils dating to around x date.
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