Comments on Fagunde et al.
"…Our results refute the specific details of the ``three-stage
model'', since the early stage of expansion into Beringia followed by
a long period of stasis could not be reproduced in any mtDNA data set
cleaned from non-Native American haplotypes…"
Tamm et al. should take note?
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0000829"…Archeological data suggest that the continent was colonized in the
late Pleistocene after the Last Glacial maximum (LGM). The oldest
sites for North and South America are about 14.5 ky old…"
Goebel et al. report:
"…Perhaps the best candidate is
the Monte Verde site (Chile), which
contains clear artifacts in a sealed
context and is dated to 14.6 ka (58).
Despite criticism (59), its acceptance
by most archaeologists means synchronous
and possibly earlier sites should exist in
North America. A few localities dating
between 15 and 14 ka now seem to provide
compelling evidence of an occupation before
Clovis…"
"…At Meadowcroft Rockshelter, artifacts
occur in sediments that may be as old as 22 to
18 ka …"
"…Cactus Hill is a sand-dune site with late prehistoric,
Archaic, and Clovis levels. Potentially older
artifacts, including small prismatic blade cores,
blades, and two basally thinned bifacial points
were recovered 10 to 15 cm below the Clovis
level (65). Three 14C dates ranging from 20 to
18 ka are reported from the levels below Clovis…
luminescence dates on the aeolian sands correlate
with the older 14C results and indicate minimal
mixing of the sediments… the potential
presence of a biface and blade assemblage
stratigraphically below the site's Clovis assemblage
is compelling…"
"…taphonomically altered mammoth
bones at the La Sena and Lovewell sites
that date from 22 to 19 ka (67). Neither site has
yielded stone tools or evidence of butchering;
however, many of the leg bones display percussion
impact and flaking, which suggests that
they were quarried and flaked by humans while
they were in a fresh, green state, within a few
years of the death of the animals…"
Goebel T, Waters MR, O'Rourke DH (2008) The Late Pleistocene
Dispersal of Modern Humans in the Americas. Science 319: 1497–1502
"…This model suggests that the ancestral population colonized
Beringia more than five thousand years before the LGM,
remained isolated there during LGM. Taking into account that
the ice-free corridor between the ice sheets had not opened
completely by this time interval, and that it could not have
supported a viable human population earlier than 14 kya [32,33],
these findings support a coastal route as the major pathway for the
peopling of the Americas, in agreement with recent published data
from a panel of STR markers [34] and archeological data…"
Assuming Monte Verde represents the earliest occupation of the
Americas. Note what Goebel et al. report above.
> A Reevaluation of the Native American MtDNA Genome
> Diversity and Its Bearing on the Models of Early
> Colonization of Beringia
> Nelson J. R. Fagundes1,2., Ricardo Kanitz1., Sandro L.
> Bonatto1*
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0003157
