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 ...
I wonder how many pre-clovis sites are now under water that won’t be found?
“...How do they know it wasn’t Bigfoot????...”
His name is Darrell....
You know, we hear about how indelibly human poop marks a place for centuries afterwards ... I’ve never heard anyone studying a similar effect to research ancient deer or wolf populations.
I wonder why that is?
I mean, unless Mankind is somehow special you would expect that you could find evidence of at least herd species in the soil too from which you could infer which species were common and what their populations might have been like ... consequently then infer things about their environment too.
Seems like it would be a life’s work for some PhD wannabe.
Ain’t dat some shlt?
Actually, that’s still getting gifted around every year as people try to get rid of it.
Discounting the Flood we’re living in the highlands of whatever existed during the ice age. Our world would be their fly over country.
Using DNA to figure out the species is a breakthrough. Study of non-human coprolites of living species in the Americas probably won't really tell anyone much. Coprolites that don't match up to living species will probably be studied now. OTOH:
Funny how whenever artifacts like tools, cooking utensils, Nanzi Pelosi wigs, etc., are found, they're always something like 10 to 15 thousand years old.
Hancock, Magicians of the Gods.....
I heard they fount it in a 14,000 year old stone commode.
“The well known Paisley Caves in Oregon”
“After you’ve seen the sh*t in Portland, come see the sh*t at the Paisley Caves! Just off Hwy 23. Only 10 minutes away!”
In the woods or out in the open, very little likelihood of the feces surviving past the next rainstorm. Under a rock shelter, in a cave, a protected desert location maybe?
Yep, caves it is.
It's funny that people who post that kind of comment are never troubled by its complate lack of facts.
Details, details.
I'll never wear paisley again, that's for sure.
“I just left an artifact upstairs if they want one. Or do I need to leave it there 14,000 years?”
Just flush it before it votes Democrat.
Off topic, but I recall a human waste based fertilizer being sold at one time- called Milorganite IIRC.
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