How the discovery of an ancient mastodon ignited debate over humans’ arrival in North America

LA TIMES ^ | Dec. 22, 2017 | Thomas Curwen

[PIF]

Accidental find that could revolutionize North America Archeology

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"Jim Paces, a geochronologist at the U.S. Geological Survey in Denver, took dozens of slices from a rib and two femurs. Each slice, no wider than a millimeter, was dissolved in nitric acid.

"The resulting solution contained trace amounts of uranium and thorium, which Paces extracted. After measuring those concentrates in a mass spectrometer, Paces concluded that the bones were 130,700 years old, plus or minus 9,400 years."

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"The conclusion seemed clear: Hominids, wandering through Southern California, had found a mastodon carcass and gone to work. They hauled cobblestones to the site and pounded the bones, cut out the marrow for food and broke off splinters for tools."

[TexasTransplant]

Wonder if in the Old West that is why they said that they saw the “Elephant”

[snooter55]

Got buffalo bone grips on my Colt M1991 .45 .

Puuuuurty !

[piasa]

No shortage of pictures of buffalo bone piles/hide piles out there. Bison bone sold for up to $15 a ton and was useful for many purposes.

http://scribol.com/anthropology-and-history/history/the-near-annihilation-of-americas-buffalo-in-pictures/

[SunkenCiv]

This topic was posted 12/22/2017, thanks PIF.

I found this while checking for any prior posting of this information. [The Cerutti Mastodon Discovery | San Diego Natural History Museum | April 26, 2017-April 5, 2026]

[ProtectOurFreedom]

In other words, “native” Americans aren’t native at all and they STOLE THE LAND. Will they give it back to the Hominids?

[Sirius Lee]

The homos came later,

They settled in SF.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

The beer at the backyard mastodon bbq tasted really good because it was 10 degrees hotter than today.

[Texan5]

That is not likely-there is no credible evidence that homo erectus survived until 25,000 years ago, since homo sapiens reached Indonesia around 73,000 years ago-or a bit later-and there is no archaeological evidence the two were there at the same time. An earlier study of homo erectus in Asia done in the 90’s was dated with faulty info. Homo floresiensis hung on till later-in isolation in parts of Asia-but those Hobbit-like dwarf humans are not classified as homo erectus-they are newer and more like neanderthals and homo sapiens...

[Texan5]

I’ve never understood why some archaeologists throw a professional tantrum whenever the old Bering land bridge/Clovis first theory for the populating of the American continent is smacked down-there is no such thing as “settled science”-especially where humans are concerned...

There is so much evidence that people had rafts/boats to travel on seas that were shallow in the ice age to find a place with more food, or a warmer climate to live in-maybe just because they’d met some people who traveled far and had some cool new trade goods from a far place-or maybe just because they were curious about what that place across the sea/over the mountain was like. People have always been into exploring and trading-that has never changed...

[blueunicorn6]

Never much cared for warm beer.

[Red Badger]

The very first Jack in the Box drive through!......

[Red Badger]

What the Mastodon was doing in your pajamas we’ll never know!........

[PIF]

Accidental find that could revolutionize North America Archeology, since archeologists have invested all their efforts into denying that anyone inhabited North Americas before the Clovis people.

Those who persisted in digging below the Clovis level [ when they were clearly told not to ], and found older things, were routinely professionally ruined.

This guy could likely suffer the same profession fate.

[SunkenCiv]

The buckets of coleslaw were huge.

[Red Badger]

I have always thought that the timeline was way off for humans in North America..........

[blueunicorn6]

He was in Alabama because the Tuscaloosa.

[Red Badger]

😁...........