http://www.mexicanfootprints.co.uk/
The discovery of 40,000 years old human footprints in Central Mexico
challenges accepted theories on when and how humans first colonised the
Americas.
The timing, route and origin of the first colonisation of the Americas
remains one of the most contentious topics in human evolution. Experts from
many disciplines are searching for the answers to three seemingly
straightforward questions:
From where did the first people come?
How did they enter the Americas?
When did they arrive?
Until recently archaeologists thought they had the answers to these
questions. Evidence suggested that the Americas had been colonised towards
the end of the Pleistocene period by hunter-gatherers migrating from Siberia
into Alaska across the Bering Land Bridge, an exposed continental shelf,
when sea levels were lower. This is known as the Clovis-First Model.
According to this model the earliest occupation of the Americas began 11,500
years ago.
The discovery of fossilised human footprints in the Valsequillo Basin,
Central Mexico challenges this accepted viewpoint and provides new evidence
that humans settled in the Americas as early as 40,000 years ago.
The footprints were discovered in the summer of 2003, on the floor of an
abandoned quarry by Dr Silvia Gonzalez, Professor David Huddart (Liverpool
John Moores University) and Professor Matthew Bennett (Bournemouth
University). At the time of the discovery the team were working on dating
and mapping the geology of the Valsequillo Basin, Puebla, Mexico.
Dr Gonzalez is one of a growing number of scientists who believes that the
first Americans may have arrived by water rather than on foot, island
hopping along the Pacific coast. Click here to find out more about her
research on the Pacific Coastal Migration Route.
The footprints research was carried out as part of a wider project funded by
NERC through the EFCHED programme, entitled Human dispersals and
environmental controls during the Late Pleistocene / Early Holocene in
Mexico: Implications for the Peopling of the Americas. The research is also
supported by INAH (Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia) in Mexico.
***
I'd say it's worth a gander, eh?
-Travis
_________________________________________________________________
Powerful Parental Controls Let your child discover the best the Internet has
to offer.
http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-ca&page=byoa/prem&xAPID=1994&DI=1034&SU=http://hotmail.com/enca&HL=Market_MSNIS_Taglines
Start enjoying all the benefits of MSN® Premium right now and get the
first two months FREE*.
_______________________________________________
http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
