Posted on 12/13/2005 10:47:40 AM PST by blam
Study sheds light on early migration
Skulls raise questions on first Americans
By MIKE TONER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 12/13/05
A 10-year study of ancient human skulls from Brazil provides new evidence that two distinct populations of prehistoric people settled the Americas more than 12,000 years ago a finding that raises new questions about the identity and origins of the first Americans.
Brazilian researchers say physical features of the skulls excavated from several limestone caves near Lagoa Santa in central Brazil differ sharply from the ancestors of today's Native Americans, who are thought to have migrated from Siberia to North America at the end of the last Ice Age.
"These earliest South Americans tend to be more similar to present-day Australians, Melanesians and sub-Saharan Africans," Brazilian anthropologist Walter Neves reported Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Neves said the findings suggest a "complex scenario in regards to the influx of humans to the New World," but he skirted controversial new theories that the first people to reach the Americas came by boat from Asia, the South Pacific or perhaps even Europe, rather than crossing a land bridge spanning the Bering Strait, as most archaeologists believe.
"No transoceanic migration is necessary to explain our findings," he said.
Instead, he said the South American population might have come by the same route used by the ancestors of modern Native Americans.
The age of the Lagoa Santa skulls does not clearly establish which of the two populations entered the Americas first or when but Neves said it is plausible to think that the South American population arrived first and then moved, or was pushed southward by the Asian ancestors of present-day Native Americans, whose genetic makeup and linguistic patterns today are dominant in both continents' native peoples.
Some genetic studies comparing ancient remains and modern humans have suggested there might have been anywhere from one to four separate migrations of prehistoric peoples to the Americas.
Human skeletal remains older than 8,000 years are rare in the Americas, but isolated examples of skulls with seemingly "un-Asian" features have been found and reported in Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Florida and California.
But the analysis by Neves, of the University of Sao Paulo's Laboratory of Human Evolution, and his colleague Mark Hubbe is the first to look comprehensively at a large number of remains from a single location.
Naturalists, amateurs and professional archaeologists have been digging up human remains in excavating the Lagoa Santa caves located in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais since the 1840s. But because the remains were scattered among museums in London, Copenhagen and Rio de Janiero, no overall study of their physical characteristics was ever performed until Neves tracked them down.
Neves says individual skulls may vary widely, but in the aggregate, the 81 South American skulls show a clear pattern that differs markedly from the features of modern Native Americans.
He says today's Native Americans and their ancestors have narrow and long skulls, squarish jaws, and relatively high noses and eye sockets. The South American skulls tend to have short and wide skulls, jutting jaws, and relatively low noses and eye sockets.
The Brazilian person had a web site, I lost it, got a link.
Yes, it's a blam thread but maybe a look. Ping.
LOL!!!!
Bill, I think we've posted this same article to each other on more than one occasion!
No. The treaties are valid and will remain so no matter if the American Indians arrived five minutes before Columbus.
If the American Indians arrived five minutes before Columbus, shouldn't the Norwegians have the casinos?
Maybe we should go with Paleovespuccians, rather than Paleoamericans.
They packed their bags and headed back to sunny Iceland as soon as it got cold. ;)
LOL. Probably. It's one of my 'throw-down' threads that saves a lot of talking.
So much to ponder.
Definitely worth a look. I'm pinging a few who may have a specific interest.
Thanks for the ping. Good stuff. The mtDNA is starting to get interesting too.
Thanks for the ping! Very interesting stuff; don't know if I can add anything to it but it's always nice to read new things.
Wow. I didn't know there *was* an internet 15,000 years ago!
[rimshot!]
Nope, I don't. I take it you've tried a web search?
I thought that current ( last 20-25 years or so ) theory suggested at least 3 waves of migration..
Any idea why this article's author is only suggesting 2 ??
Wave migration theory aside, I would think there would have been thousands of years of storm-borne travellers brought to the shores of both americas and the the gulf islands..
I would even guess this would not be considered a rarity..
While not a massive, purposeful population shift, chances are there was enough accidental migration to establish some small populations throughout the americas prior to any of the asian - bering straits migrations..
Oppenheimer said his DNA study shows three entries but later on, he said that there could have been as many as five.
"Any idea why this article's author is only suggesting 2 ?? "
No. IMO, we've got a long way to go before a final answer is in.
Yes, but not before taking the trouble to travel all the way to Minnesota to leave a stone inscription on the future farm of a Swedish immigrant.
I agree. Everyone outside Sub-Saharan Africa are closer related than to anyone presently in Sub-Saharan Africa. In fact, the 'out-of-Africa' line that (suposedly) produced all of us, went extinct in Africa thousands of years ago.
Neves is pretty good so, I expect this is a translation or writers error.
Oppenheimer says the Orang Alsi (Malaysia) have the oldest DNA on earth.
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