Posted on 07/21/2020 11:42:52 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
The question of when human settlers first arrived in North America is not an easy one to answer, but archaeologists now have another piece of useful evidence to work from - a new study of 14,000-year-old poop.
Found in the well-known Paisley Caves in Oregon, the faeces add to the growing consensus that human history on the continent pre-dates the Clovis culture thought to have been established about 11,500 years ago.
While the DNA of this dried-out dung has been analysed before, the latest study takes a different tack, looking for traces of lipids - the fatty biological materials, including cholesterol, that are found in the guts of humans and animals.
"The question of when and how people first settled the Americas has been a subject of intense debate," says geoarchaeologist Lisa-Marie Shillito from Newcastle University in the UK.
"By using a different approach, we have been able to demonstrate that there were pre-Clovis populations present in the area of the Great Basin and resolve this debate once and for all."
While the ancient poop samples - coprolites, to give their technical name - had been dated using radiocarbon techniques, there had been some debate over whether they were actually from humans. A lot of DNA contamination and sediment shift can happen across the course of 14,000 years.
Contamination is much less likely to occur during analysis of lipids, which preserve better than DNA; taken with previous findings, the new research suggests these faeces are indeed human in origin, and that there were in fact people living here all that time ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencealert.com ...
rest of the Paisley Cave keyword:
I just left an artifact upstairs if they want one. Or do I need to leave it there 14,000 years?
Cities in Oregon had a homeless poop problem even 14.000 years ago?
Also found, prehistoric shopping cart and needles
Can you imagine squatting in the primeval woods, and realizing that this could be the longest surviving artifact you’ll leave for archaeologists of the distant future?
How do they know it wasn’t Bigfoot????
I guess they really do know their sh*t.
“pre-dates the Clovis culture thought to have been established about 11,500 years ago.”
OK, someone must owe them reparations, probably the descendants of those Clovis people. Pony up, and be ashamed of yourselves.
14,000 years? Obviously from an ancient Christmas fruitcake.
They’ve got to be shi&&in me!
I’m sure Joe Biden has a 14,000-year old turd somewhere in his diaper.
He should have written his name in it.
...geoarchaeologist Lisa-Marie Shillito from Newcastle University in the UK ..
Carrying coal doesn't sound so bad now, eh?.
Most startling discovery...
Undissolved Centrum tablets!
Darn it I just mess up my time travel, hopefully they do not compare it to 23andMe.
It relates to the size of the coprolite. Among geoarchaeologists, sasquatch is known as "Big Tush".
Oregon makes sense if you believe the first settlers came to America crossing the Bering Strait - then moving south along to coast to warmer weather.
:^) Oregon can't be made to make any sense at this point .
“Carrying coal doesn’t sound so bad now, eh?”
She’s rebranded it as “coprolite” to make a niche in an otherwise saturated market.
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