What sort of evidence connects the first humans to arrive in the Americas to the

Question

What sort of evidence connects the first humans to arrive in the Americas to the ancient people of Siberia and East Asia? What does the available evidence suggest as the most likely explanation for how humans spread into North and South America? Consider biological, genetic, and archaeological evidence. What sort of evidence connects the first humans to arrive in the Americas to the ancient people of Siberia and East Asia? What does the available evidence suggest as the most likely explanation for how humans spread into North and South America? Consider biological, genetic, and archaeological evidence.

Explanation / Answer

1)

The theory that the Americas were populated by humans crossing from Siberia to Alaska across a land bridge was first proposed as far back as 1590, and has been generally accepted since the 1930s.

But genetic evidence shows there is no direct ancestral link between the people of ancient East Asia and modern Native Americans. A comparison of DNA from 600 modern Native Americans with ancient DNA recovered from a late Stone Age human skeleton from Mal'ta near Lake Baikal in southern Siberia shows that Native Americans diverged genetically from their Asian ancestors around 25,000 years ago, just as the last ice age was reaching its peak.

Based on archaeological evidence, humans did not survive the last ice age’s peak in northeastern Siberia, and yet there is no evidence they had reached Alaska or the rest of the New World either. While there is evidence to suggest northeast Siberia was inhabited during a warm period about 30,000 years ago before the last ice age peaked, after this the archaeological record goes silent, and only returns 15,000 years ago, after the last ice age ended.

2)  The first humans crossed over 30,000 years ago, moving down the west coast of North America. Other sources suggest a more recent North American migration, starting about 15,000 years ago. New evidence seems to keep pushing the date of first North American habitation further and further back. Humans eventually spread into South America and pushed east into what is now the eastern United States and Canada. This theory of North America's settlement is supported by mtDNA evidence and a similarity in the dental structures of Siberian and North American populations of the era.

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