The Late Pleistocene Dispersal of Modern Humans in the Americas
Abstract
When did humans colonize the Americas? From where did they come and what routes did they take? These questions have gripped scientists for decades, but until recently answers have proven difficult to find. Current genetic evidence implies dispersal from a single Siberian population toward the Bering Land Bridge no earlier than about 30,000 years ago (and possibly after 22,000 years ago), then migration from Beringia to the Americas sometime after 16,500 years ago. The archaeological records of Siberia and Beringia generally support these findings, as do archaeological sites in North and South America dating to as early as 15,000 years ago. If this is the time of colonization, geological data from western Canada suggest that humans dispersed along the recently deglaciated Pacific coastline.
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References and Notes
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All ages are presented as ka (thousands of calendar years ago). Dates relating to genetic events are in calendar years based on coalescent methods. Dates relating to archaeological events are derived by calibrating radiocarbon ages. Radiocarbon dates younger than 21,000 14C years ago were calibrated with Calib 5.0.1 (IntCal04 curve); older dates were calibrated by using CalPal Online (CalPal 2007 HULU curve).
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Volume 319 | Issue 5869
14 March 2008
14 March 2008
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