TY - JOUR
T1 - Postglacial viability and colonization in North America’s ice-free corridor
AU - Pedersen, Mikkel Winther
AU - Ruter, Anthony Henry
AU - Schweger, Charlie
AU - Friebe, Harvey
AU - Staff, Richard A.
AU - Kjeldsen, Kristian Kjellerup
AU - Zepeda Mendoza, Marie Lisandra
AU - Beaudoin, Alwynne B.
AU - Zutter, Cynthia
AU - Larsen, Nicolaj Krog
AU - Potter, Ben A.
AU - Nielsen, Rasmus
AU - Rainville, Rebecca A.
AU - Orlando, Ludovic Antoine Alexandre
AU - Meltzer, David J.
AU - Kjær, Kurt H.
AU - Willerslev, Eske
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - During the Last Glacial Maximum, continental ice sheets isolated Beringia (northeast Siberia and northwest North America) from unglaciated North America. By around 15 to 14 thousand calibrated radiocarbon years before present (cal. kyr BP), glacial retreat opened an approximately 1,500-km-long corridor between the ice sheets. It remains unclear when plants and animals colonized this corridor and it became biologically viable for human migration. We obtained radiocarbon dates, pollen, macrofossils and metagenomic DNA from lake sediment cores in a bottleneck portion of the corridor. We find evidence of steppe vegetation, bison and mammoth by approximately 12.6 cal. kyr BP, followed by open forest, with evidence of moose and elk at about 11.5 cal. kyr BP, and boreal forest approximately 10 cal. kyr BP. Our findings reveal that the first Americans, whether Clovis or earlier groups in unglaciated North America before 12.6 cal. kyr BP, are unlikely to have travelled by this route into the Americas. However, later groups may have used this north–south passageway.
AB - During the Last Glacial Maximum, continental ice sheets isolated Beringia (northeast Siberia and northwest North America) from unglaciated North America. By around 15 to 14 thousand calibrated radiocarbon years before present (cal. kyr BP), glacial retreat opened an approximately 1,500-km-long corridor between the ice sheets. It remains unclear when plants and animals colonized this corridor and it became biologically viable for human migration. We obtained radiocarbon dates, pollen, macrofossils and metagenomic DNA from lake sediment cores in a bottleneck portion of the corridor. We find evidence of steppe vegetation, bison and mammoth by approximately 12.6 cal. kyr BP, followed by open forest, with evidence of moose and elk at about 11.5 cal. kyr BP, and boreal forest approximately 10 cal. kyr BP. Our findings reveal that the first Americans, whether Clovis or earlier groups in unglaciated North America before 12.6 cal. kyr BP, are unlikely to have travelled by this route into the Americas. However, later groups may have used this north–south passageway.
U2 - 10.1038/nature19085
DO - 10.1038/nature19085
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 27509852
VL - 537
SP - 45
EP - 49
JO - Nature
JF - Nature
SN - 0028-0836
IS - 7618
ER -