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 ...
Not quite. Most ancient known ancestors less than a quarter billion. People as we know them, maybe a few hundred thousand. We've been here as God's creation for a blink of an eye compared to His cosmos.
Paisley Caves isn’t anywhere near Portland. It’s near, well, Paisley. I doubt the animals will come near it. Paisley is in the sane part of the state.
I actually think of that at times when I pick up some random something else along w/ the usual in a doggie bag.
Future archeologists will be really confused as to 21st century rituals involving dog feces, used Kleenex and, say, a beer bottle cap, all nicely preserved together in a blue plastic bag.
“Unknown ceremony.”
They spin some pretty good stories.
If they keep looking they might find the remains of a 14000 year old moccasin with sh*t on it.
Well, sure, if you’re talking about physical distance.
I’m talking about entertainment.
Portland and Paisley are very close in terms of entertainment venues.
The evidence for pre-clovis human presence in the Americas continues to build. Of course, science changes her mind very slowly and only after numerous hissy fits. I was around when Geology finally embraced Continential Drift, long after the evidence was self-evident.
This evidence looks solid, pun not intended. I hope that the lab doesn’t discover evidence of very old goldfish crackers
the discovery of a sabretooth tiger in the cave may have caused a sudden deposit ?
Oyster crackers maybe. :^)
There is a well known fruit cake bakery in Corsicana, Texas, that ships all over the world. I maintain it hasn’t baked a fruit cake in decades, just recycling returns.
lol
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.