Prehistoric Oregon latrine trove of fossil DNA

AP ^ | 21 Sep 2008 | Jeff Barnard

[BGHater]

For some 85 years, homesteaders, pot hunters and archaeologists have been digging at Paisley Caves, a string of shallow depressions washed out of an ancient lava flow by the waves of a lake that comes and goes with the changing climate.

Until now, they have found nothing conclusive-arrowheads, baskets, animal bones and sandals made by people who lived thousands of years ago on the shores of what was then a 40-mile-long lake, but is now a sagebrush desert on the northern edge of the Great Basin.

But a few years ago, University of Oregon archaeologist Dennis Jenkins and his students started digging where no one had dug before. What the team discovered in an alcove used as a latrine and trash dump has elevated the caves to the site of the oldest radiocarbon dated human remains in North America.

Coprolites - ancient feces - were found to contain human DNA linked directly to modern-day American Indians with Asian roots and radiocarbon dated to 14,300 years ago. That's 1,000 years before the oldest stone points of the Clovis culture, which for much of the 20th century was believed to represent the first people in North America.

Dennis Jenkins, a University of Oregon archaeologist, (center) hands up a device to measure the temperature at Paisley Caves.

Archaeologists hike to the Paisley Caves outside Paisley, Ore., site of the discovery of coprolites dated 14,300 years old - the oldest radiocarbon-dated human remains in North America.

[TruthWillWin]

I also know where Applegate is....

[bert]

.....Caprolene, the lode stone of Green Earthers....

Then there is capranol. A capranol martini will get you up and running.

[Battle Axe]

I think it is north of Lakeview and the home of a geyser.

Oregon has a lot of “stuff” mostly weird. I think they also have a magnetic point.....where your compass goes nuts.

[SunkenCiv]

Scatman Carruthers.

[Fred Nerks]

PAISLEY CAVES.

Human coprolites from this deposit have produced AMS radiocarbon dates as old as the camel astragalus.

ARTIFACT GALLERY.

[uglybiker]

...the waves of a lake that comes and goes with the changing climate.

Oh no! Everyone knows that the climate has always stayed the same! That is, until those g-d@mned western capitalists started spewing all their poisons into the biosphere!

The science is settled!! It's settled, cammit!!!!

LALALALALALALALA! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!

[Wuli]

Oh,

you took the fun out of my light-hearted scenario;

even if you are right.

[Danae]

LOL Portland being by far the wierdest.

[Cold Heart]

Lake Abert

[Towed_Jumper]

“If I ever sign up at DU as a freeper troll again, “Coprolites” will be my screen name.”

I guess being a “Copro-lite” beats being a “Copro-heavy”.

[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

• 'Tantalizing' discovery of ancient tool in Oregon prompts 'extreme skepticism'
• 14,300-year-old Dried Human Feces found in Paisley Caves
• Native Americans arrived to find natives already there, fossil poo shows
• Oregon cave discovery suggests lost ancient American culture (Pre-Clovis)
• Fossilized human feces hints at long-lost, 13,500-year-old West Coast culture
• Oregon Discovery Challenges Beliefs About First Humans
• Finding Pre-Clovis Humans in the Oregon High Desert
• Fossil Feces Push Back Earliest Date of Humans in Americas
• Fossilized feces found in Oregon suggest earliest human presence in North America
• Archaeologist Talks About Oregon's Early Natives
• When Did Humans Come to the Americas?