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DNA From 12,000-Year-Old Skeleton Helps Answer the Question: Who Were the First Americans?
Smithsonian Magazine ^ | 5-15-2014 | Mohi Kumar

Posted on 05/16/2014 5:30:54 AM PDT by Renfield

ome 12,000 years ago, a teenage girl took a walk in what’s now the Yucatan Peninsula and fell 190 feet into a deep pit, breaking her pelvis and likely killing her instantly. Over time, the pit—part of an elaborate limestone cave system—became a watery grave as the most recent ice age ended, glaciers melted and sea levels rose.

In 2007, cave divers happened upon her remarkably preserved remains, which form the oldest, most complete and genetically intact human skeleton in the New World. Her bones, according to new research published in Science, hold the key to a question that has long plagued scientists: Who were the first Americans?

Prevailing ideas point to all Native Americans descending from ancient Siberians who moved across the Beringia land bridge between Asia and North America between 26,000 and 18,000 years ago. As time wore on, the thinking goes, these people spread southward and gave rise to the Native American populations encountered by European settlers centuries ago....

(Excerpt) Read more at smithsonianmag.com ...


TOPICS: History; Science
KEYWORDS: genetics; paleoanthropology; paleoindians
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To: miliantnutcase

See my post above. C-14 dating is reliable for an age of 12,000 years. Upper limit is about 50,000 years.


21 posted on 05/16/2014 6:22:18 AM PDT by stremba
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To: Mercat
I don’t know why they make it out to be an accident.

How dare you question the Smithsonian! Why do you hate history and science? /s

22 posted on 05/16/2014 6:23:31 AM PDT by Fester Chugabrew
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To: oh8eleven

It’s possible that there were other victims at this location, but that their skeletons, for one reason or another, did not survive to the present day. I would imagine that a well-preserved 12,000 year old skeleton would be the exception rather than the rule.


23 posted on 05/16/2014 6:23:53 AM PDT by stremba
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To: Fester Chugabrew

I actually love watching Smithsonian on Demand although as a rule I take it all with a grain of salt.


24 posted on 05/16/2014 6:27:26 AM PDT by Mercat
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To: stremba
I agree that the commentor was mocking what he considered creationists to be.
25 posted on 05/16/2014 6:30:51 AM PDT by luvbach1 (We are finished. It will just take a while before everyone realizes it.)
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To: WilliamofCarmichael

Mummy mia!!


26 posted on 05/16/2014 6:31:26 AM PDT by luvbach1 (We are finished. It will just take a while before everyone realizes it.)
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To: oh8eleven

Good point in your post #8.


27 posted on 05/16/2014 6:33:28 AM PDT by luvbach1 (We are finished. It will just take a while before everyone realizes it.)
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To: Mercat
Sacrifice. I don’t know why they make it out to be an accident.

A teenage girl? Could be an accident if she's the only one in there. (you'd expect there would be more than one if the sinkhole was used for sacrifices)

Some teenage girls seem to be in their own world, and ditty-bopping around in the boonies and karst topography with their head in the clouds could well lead to tragedy.

Human nature is pretty much human nature, whenever.

Even today, people get run over by trains and vehicles, just not paying attention to their surroundings.

28 posted on 05/16/2014 6:34:00 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: Smokin' Joe

I don’t think that they had cell phones back then.


29 posted on 05/16/2014 6:54:03 AM PDT by Mercat
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To: txrefugee
The climate knew the Reagen tax cuts were coming in the 1980’s so warmed to send warning to all right thinking liberals
30 posted on 05/16/2014 7:17:50 AM PDT by Manta (Obama to issue executive order repealing laws of physics)
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To: Renfield

Proves nothing. If the asian migration occurred 13-15000 years ago then the idea that in 1000 years some of those peoples migrated into south america is not at all surprising. I don’t subscribe to the PC concept that the asian migration was the first into North and South America. The evidence of possible earlier migrations from the Pacific areas as well as the Solutrian migrations some 15-20K years earlier are gaining ground.


31 posted on 05/16/2014 7:33:26 AM PDT by RJS1950 (The democrats are the "enemies foreign and domestic" cited in the federal oath)
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To: Renfield
Who Were the First Americans?


32 posted on 05/16/2014 7:36:19 AM PDT by JRios1968 (I'm guttery and trashy, with a hint of lemon. - Laz)
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To: Mercat

I antedate the cell phone by quite a bit, myself. This is a teenage girl, in the throes of physical metamorphosis, replete with raging hormones. No cell phone required to have low situational awareness.


33 posted on 05/16/2014 7:42:58 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: Renfield

Radio carbon dating assumes background radiation is a constant and what would the standard deviation be at a 12000 year dating? If background radiation was less than assumed wouldn’t the dating appear older? The hole is littered with other fossils of different beast. The other dating metioned said it’s results were inconclusive but the dating was about 12000. Hmmmm! someone needs a grant?


34 posted on 05/16/2014 7:53:56 AM PDT by the_daug
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To: Mercat
They’re called Cenotes which means “well of sacrifice.” Google it.
So they only used the well one time - or - the conditions were such that only one victim's remains survived?
I doubt either is true and I'm sticking with accident.
35 posted on 05/16/2014 8:17:43 AM PDT by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: stremba

I saw that, I was just mentioning to him they used other methods besides carbon dating to narrow down the time frame.


36 posted on 05/16/2014 8:34:07 AM PDT by miliantnutcase
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