Paleobiology of the first Americans

• Published in: Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews
• Main Authors: Steele, D. Gentry, Powell, Joseph F.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1993
• Subjects: Bering Land Bridge
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/evan.1360020409; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fevan.1360020409; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/evan.1360020409

Abstract The majority of scholars studying the human colonization of the New World agree that the first Americans, traditionally identifed as Paleoindians, entered near the end of the Pleistocene via the Bering land bridge from northeast Asia. But this is where agreement ends. Questions about the number and timing of migrations, the physical appearance of the colonists, and the manner in which they lived have been examined since the turn of the century 1–7 and still engender lively debate. 8–16 Curiously lacking from the growing body of data on the peopling of the Americas is evidence from the physical remains of the first Americans. We summarize research on the earliest human remains from North America and discuss how these remains shed new light on these unanswered questions.