A group of scientists has claimed that
ancient humans may have settled in
North America as long as 130,000 years
ago—some 115,000 years earlier than
previously thought. The controversial
assertion, which is viewed with skepticism
by most other paleontologists,
is based on analysis of the fossilized
remains of a mastodon, a long-extinct
mammoth-like animal. Discovered beside
a freeway near San Diego in 1992, the
mastodon bones were scratched and
broken into many pieces, surrounded by
several large rocks that may have served
as hammers and anvils. Researchers
at the University of Michigan and elsewhere
have concluded that the bones
are 130,000 years old, and that they were
opened when fresh by a Neanderthal or
other ancient human relative using rocks
to try to extract bone marrow. It’s widely
accepted that Homo sapiens arrived in
North America about 15,000 years ago,
across a land bridge connecting Siberia
and Alaska; the mastodon findings, if
confirmed, would indicate that another
hominin species somehow reached this
continent much earlier. If that hypothesis
is true, it would rewrite the story of
human migration. Skeptics argue that
there are more-plausible explanations for
the bone fractures and markings, such as
pressure from the sediment on top of it.
Paleontologist Thomas A. Deméré, a coauthor
of the study, acknowledged that
the findings seem “impossible,’’ but said,
“People have to be open to the possibility
that humans were here this long ago.’’
