New study suggests route of first humans to North America was not Western Canada

Willerslev and his international crew, including a number of Canadian scientists, analyzed nine sediment cores from Charlie Lake and Spring Lake in British Columbia and Alberta — the last areas of the corridor to thaw.

Their research, based on plant remains and environmental DNA, reveals the landscape couldn’t support human life until about 2,000 years after the first humans were recorded in North America. Willerslev said there was no vegetation or animals, such as bison and mammoth, that were an important food source hunted by early Americans.

“It shows that the first humans to occupy the Americas south of the big ice sheets covering most of northern North America during the last ice age could not have come through the interior ice-free corridor, whether you believe these first humans were Clovis or earlier,” Willerslev told The Canadian Press.

“It first became viable for travelling and survival around 12,600 years ago. You have archaeological sites in the U.S. and Chile that are at least some two thousand years older.”

The Clovis were thought to be the first people to settle in North America around 13,500 years ago, at the end of the last ice age. But spearheads and DNA from a group predating the Clovis, were found at the Paisley Caves in Oregon and found to be as old as 14,000 years.

Willerslev now believes the most logical route that the early humans took was along the western edge of the North American continent including Alaska, British Columbia and Oregon. He said 14,000 years ago, most parts of North America would have been under ice with the exception of Alaska and the Yukon.

The next step in the research would be to explore the coastal route using the same technological approach, if possible, he said.

Willserslev said many in the scientific community he’s spoken to are excited about the research but there are others unlikely to accept a different point of view.

“Some scientists will go to their graves with their original beliefs independent of the evidence. But that’s all right,” he said.

“What matters is what the majority view is. That sets the mindset of the next generation of researchers.”

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Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

New study suggests route of first humans to North America was not Western Canada

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