OREGON: Oldest Native American Evidence Discovered = fossil feces dated at 14,300 years

[L. Coyote]

Fossilized feces found in Oregon suggest earliest human presence in North America
Sandi Doughton - Seattle Times - http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004322592_weboldpoop03m.html


... 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. ..........


========================
MORE: The Paleoamericans:
Issues and Evidence Relating to the Peopling of the New World
http://jqjacobs.net/anthro/paleoamericans.html

[L. Coyote]

1. Researchers, Led by Archaeologist, Find Pre-Clovis Human DNA

Source: University of Oregon
Released: Wed 02-Apr-2008, 13:55 ET
Researchers, Led by Archaeologist, Find Pre-Clovis Human DNA
http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/539341/



Description
Human DNA from dried excrement recovered from Oregon's Paisley Caves is the oldest found yet in the New World -- dating to 14,300 years ago, some 1,200 years before Clovis culture -- and provides apparent genetic ties to Siberia or Asia, according to an international team of 13 scientists.

Newswise — Human DNA from dried excrement recovered from Oregon's Paisley Caves is the oldest found yet in the New World -- dating to 14,300 years ago, some 1,200 years before Clovis culture -- and provides apparent genetic ties to Siberia or Asia, according to an international team of 13 scientists.

Among the researchers is Dennis L. Jenkins, a senior archaeologist with the University of Oregon’s Museum of Natural and Cultural History, whose summer field expeditions over two summers uncovered a variety of artifacts in caves that had caught the scientific attention of the UO’s Luther Cressman in the 1930s.

The Paisley Caves are located in the Summer Lake basin near Paisley, about 220 miles southeast of Eugene on the eastern side of the Cascade Range. The series of eight caves are westward-facing, wave-cut shelters on the highest shoreline of pluvial Lake Chewaucan, which rose and fell in periods of greater precipitation during the Pleistocene.

The team’s extensively documented analyses on mitochondrial DNA -- genetic material passed on maternally ..................

[L. Coyote]

2. Fossilized Feces Tell Tale of Earliest Americans

Fossilized Feces Tell Tale of Earliest Americans
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89355318

Listen Now - 4 min 25 sec

Fossilized human feces dating back to 12,300 B.C.


The fossilized human feces found in Oregon's Paisley Caves have been radiocarbon dated to 12,300 B.C. Dennis LeRoy Jenkins

All Things Considered, April 3, 2008 · Archaeologists are abuzz over the discovery of several 14,000-year-old pieces of fossilized human excrement found in Oregon.

These coprolites, as they're called by experts, are remarkable for several reasons. For one thing, they're older than most artifacts left by the earliest Americans. For another, they contain DNA, which gives scientists a rare opportunity to learn about the first people to arrive in North America.

Ancient Camp Site

Archaeologists knew about Oregon's Paisley Caves back in the late 1930s. These shallow caves were carved into a hillside by a prehistoric lake. Inside, they found animal bones, stone tools and other signs that humans camped or lived there. But in 2002, a team dug deeper and found what you might call pay dirt, says archeologist Dennis Jenkins.

"At the bottom of cave No. 5, we recovered horse and camel bones and a coprolite which produced human DNA," ..............

[L. Coyote]

3. TAC features pre-Clovis evidence from Oregon = archaeologychannel.org

From: RPettigrew ...
TAC features pre-Clovis evidence from Oregon
To: Friends and colleagues:

... The archaeologist who recovered the new evidence tells the story directly from the find-site at Paisley Caves in Finding Pre-Clovis Humans in the Oregon High Desert: An Interview with Dennis Jenkins, the latest video feature on our nonprofit streaming-media Web site, The Archaeology Channel ...

... at Paisley Five Mile Point Caves on June 13, 2007, by Rick Pettigrew ... Jenkins describes the remarkable discovery ... standing in the very spot where his field school team recovered the evidence ....

This and other programs are available on TAC ... nonprofit public-education and visitor-supported programming ...

http://www.archaeologychannel.org