For decades, scientists assumed that humans arrived in the Americas between 12,000 and 15,000 years ago. However, a new study from an international team of researchers has confirmed evidence that humans arrived in the New World far earlier, as early as 24,000 years ago.
The research, published in the journal Nature, has upended the traditional timeline of the settlement of the Americas and forced researchers to rethink the conventional narrative of the continent’s settlement.
The study is based on a site in California known as Cerutti Mastodon. There, researchers unearthed more than 100 stone tools and abutchered mastodon skeleton with telltale signs that humans had been occupying the area at the time of the ancient animal’s death.
Genetic analyses of the bones revealed that they date back around 130,000 years. Additionally, uranium–thorium dating of fossilized eggshells found at the site suggested that the first humans arrived there some 24,000 years ago.
These findings suggest that the first humans in the Americas may have been Neanderthals, the creatures that were thought to have been replaced by modern Homo Sapiens some 40,000 years ago.
The discovery has implications on the current view of the peopling of the Americas. It suggests that the first humans may have arrived before continental glaciation, the thickness of ice sheets that covered much of the northern hemisphere during Earth’s Ice Age.
The study also raises questions about the method by which these early settlers arrived in the New World, as well as the journey they took to arrive there. Previous theories about the arrival of humans had suggested that they had crossed the Bering Strait and headed south, although the authors of the study suggest that they may have taken a more complicated route from Siberia.
The discovery of the Cerutti Mastodon suggests that early humans were able to adapt to many different environments across the globe. It also underscores the diversity, resilient and resourcefulness of our species as we have evolved and spread across the globe.