And we have this fossil record because, dare I say it, sh!t happened.

The discovery was one for the pages of an archaeology classic, something with a title like “Gods, Graves and Scat.”

Some people, coming into new country long ago, stopped at a cave for years perhaps, or only a day’s rest. Time enough, in any event, for them to relieve themselves — you know, answer nature’s call, if they bothered with euphemism. The cave was their in-house outhouse.

Exploring Paisley Caves in the Cascade Range of Oregon, archaeologists have found a scattering of human coprolites, or fossil feces. The specimens preserved 14,000-year-old human protein and DNA, which the discoverers said was the strongest evidence yet of the earliest people living in North America.

Other archaeologists agreed that the findings established more firmly than before the presence of people on the continent at least 1,000 years before the well-known Clovis people, previously thought to be the first Americans. Recent research at sites in Florida and Wisconsin also appears to support the earlier arrivals, and a campsite in Chile indicates migration deep into South America by 14,600 years ago.

The find was published online Thursday by the journal Science, www.sciencexpress.org.

That serves as a reminder that not every piece of the fossil record is something glamorous, and not every aspect of the anthropologists work involves findings of something glorious.

A bunch of humans stopped in a cave and set up a privy. Now, thousands of years later, that privy is the most significant piece of evidence we have for their existence, a millennium before any other humans came to the Americas.

Amazing, isn't it, what becomes scientifically significant?

Posted by: Greg at 10:09 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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