Fossilized feces found in Oregon suggest earliest human presence in North America

Seattle Times ^ | 02 Apr 2008 | Sandi Doughton

[BGHater]

Hold the potty humor, please, but archaeologists digging in a dusty cave in Oregon have unearthed fossilized feces that appear to be oldest biological evidence of humans in North America.

The ancient poop dates back 14,300 years. If the results hold up, that means the continent was populated more than 1,000 years before the so-called Clovis culture, long believed to be the first Americans.

"This adds to a growing body of evidence that the human presence in the Americas predates Clovis," said Michael Waters, an anthropologist at Texas A&M University who was not involved in the project.

DNA analysis of the dried excrement shows the people who lived in the caves were closely related to modern Native Americans. Their genetic roots reach across the Bering Strait to Siberia and eastern Asia.

"These are probably the ancestors of some of the Native Americans living in America now," said Eske Willerslev, director of the Centre for Ancient Genetics at the University of Copenhagen. He co-authored the report that appears in today's online Science Express.

The age of the finding also calls into question the theory that people who crossed the Bering Land Bridge to Alaska migrated south through ice-free corridors as glaciers began to break up. Geological evidence suggests the corridors weren't open 14,300 years ago, though the glaciers had pulled back from the coasts.

"People probably came either by boat or maybe even walking along the West Coast," Willerslev said.

Before the Oregon discovery, the oldest human remains in North America were two sets of bones about 13,000 years old from California and Nevada. Kennewick Man, the skeleton found on the banks of the Columbia River in Eastern Washington, dates to 9,400 years ago.

[Varda]

Thank you for the reply.

“If there was an appreciable difference in epigenetic sexual differences then reciprocal crosses between populations would be different”

Is this opinion the result of research? The first part of your answer suggests not. I’ll admit that I would expect there to be differences.

[Varda]

I downloaded the journal article from Sciencexpress. I'm assuming that there are consistent characteristics that leads them to this conclusion. That is usually the source of these explanations.

Oregon seems very dry to me but I live in Pennsylvania which is much much wetter than even the coast of Oregon. The caves they investigated are definitely in a dryer part of Oregon, a little over 100 miles from the Nevada/California border. One article (from the U of O) does call them “desert” caves.

[allmendream]

Yes. Epigenetic sexual effects (selfish gene)show themselves in reciprocal crosses. Lots of research on this, just not in humans as it is more difficult to tell them who you want them to mate with and get compliance (damn their independence! ;)).

Why would you expect a difference? Every human populations exhibit the same sexual behaviors.

If there was a human population that exhibited, lets say, total promiscuity, then the males would have larger testicles, and would have changed the epigenetic expression to demand maternal resources even if it was detrimental to the overall health of the female; the female would respond by changing the epigenetic pattern that she passes on to blunt this effect.

When men from the usual human population had a child with the female from the ‘promiscuous’ tribe the children would be freakishly small. If a male from the ‘promiscuous’ tribe had a child with a female from the usual human population the resulting child would be a giant.

There has been no observed difference in reciprocal crosses, humans from all populations are very genetically similar, share a very recent common ancestor, and exhibit identical sexual characteristics. Your expectations fly in the face of absolutely every piece of data collected on the subject so far. But go ahead and speculate, the data isn't in yet; but there is little reason to expect any sort of difference along these lines.

[ForGod'sSake]

I'm assuming that there are consistent characteristics that leads them to this conclusion.

After reading at the link you provided it would seem you're right. Problem for me is, there is so much junk that gets passed off as science, it's difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. There are so many sacred cows within the scientific community, I approach most all it with a good deal of skepticism. These people have been pretty conservative in reaching any conclusions; not always the case.

[SunkenCiv]

Pre-Clovis Breakthrough Archaeology (4/3/08)

• Fossil Faeces Pinpoint Earliest North Americans Nature (4/3/08)
• Fossilised Poo from Oldest American People Found Telegraph (4/3/08)
• Fossilized Feces Tell Tale of Earliest Americans NPR (4/3/08)
• Faeces Hint at First Americans BBC News (4/3/08)
• Fossil Feces Is Earliest Evidence of N. America Humans National Geographic News (4/3/08)
• Poop Fossil Pushes Back Date for Earliest Americans Discovery News (4/3/08)
• First Americans Left Fossil Stools in Cave Latrine New Scientist (4/3/08)
• The Voyage to America EurekAlert (4/3/08)
• Pre-Clovis Human DNA Found In 14,300-year-old Feces In Oregon Cave Is Oldest In New World Science Daily (4/3/08)
• New Evidence of Earliest North Americans ABC News (4/3/08)
• Experts use poop to date first North Americans MSNBC (4/3/08)
• Humans in North America Earlier Than Thought Los Angeles Times (4/4/08)
• Human Traces Found to Be Oldest in N. America Washington Post (4/4/08)
• Evidence Supports Earlier Date for People in North America New York Times (4/4/08)
• New Evidence of Earliest North Americans Wired (4/4/08)

[Ditter]

I love to hunt arrowheads and I am always on the look out for strange rocks. I have found some rocks over the years that looked like poo but I always said, no, it couldn't be........

[SunkenCiv]

• 'Tantalizing' discovery of ancient tool in Oregon prompts 'extreme skepticism'
• 14,300-year-old Dried Human Feces found in Paisley Caves
• Native Americans arrived to find natives already there, fossil poo shows
• Oregon cave discovery suggests lost ancient American culture (Pre-Clovis)
• Fossilized human feces hints at long-lost, 13,500-year-old West Coast culture
• Prehistoric Oregon latrine trove of fossil DNA
• Oregon Discovery Challenges Beliefs About First Humans
• Finding Pre-Clovis Humans in the Oregon High Desert
• Fossil Feces Push Back Earliest Date of Humans in Americas
• Archaeologist Talks About Oregon's Early Natives
• When Did Humans Come to the Americas?