Excavations at Peru’s Huaca Prieta archaeological complex have uncovered evidence that habitation in the area stretches back to nearly 15,000 years ago. The site itself is home to a 7,800-year-old pyramid mound, with the area previously believed to have been inhabited for thousands of years. However, this new find is part of a growing body of evidence that humans had settled the Americas far earlier than scientists had originally thought.
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The definitive dating of the remains of the extinct hominin Homo naledi has been completed, and the results have left researchers’ original assumptions about the age of the creature in the dust: initially thought to be 2.5 million years old, the remains have been found to be only one-tenth of that age, at roughly 250,000 years — meaning that this species co-existed with modern humans.
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Two new studies have added new evidence to the theory that a major airburst from a meteor or comet occurred over North America, ushering in a 1,400-year cooling period called the Younger Dryas that occurred between the Pleistocene and the Holocene eras. The Younger Dryas saw the extinction of most of the large land mammals across North America, and also the end of the Clovis People, a Paleo-Indian culture. A charred layer of soil, found at roughly 50 Clovis sites across the continent, suggest a massive wildfire that raged continent-wide, possibly caused by such a massive meteor strike.
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