New Mexico Mammoth Bones from 37,000 years ago “Upend” Clovis Theory | Ancient Originshttps://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/new-mexico-mammoth-bones-0017087team of scientists led by researchers from the University of Texas have uncovered compelling evidence to prove human beings settled in North America much earlier than had once been believed. That evidence comes from the excavated bones of a mother mammoth and her calf that were apparently killed and butchered by indigenous Americans living in the lands of modern-day New Mexico approximately 37,000 years ago.
The scientists extracted collagen from some of the bones, for the purposes of radiocarbon dating. These tests proved the mammoth mother and calf had lived somewhere between 36,250 and 38,900 years ago, putting them right in the middle of the Upper Paleolithic period . This extremely old date represents an enormous departure from traditional ideas about when the Americas might have been settled by the ancestors of the Native Americans.
Some of the evidence of human alteration of the bones was obvious to the naked eye. But a lot of the most revealing data was collected through CT scans taken at the University of Texas High-Resolution X-ray Computed Tomography Facility. These precise examinations revealed microscopic fracture networks in the bones that were fully consistent with toolmaking and butchering activities, and not explainable by any natural force.
Frontiers | Human Occupation of the North American Colorado Plateau ∼37,000 Years Agohttps://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2022.903795/full