Reports

DNA from Pre-Clovis Human Coprolites in Oregon, North America

M. Thomas P. Gilbert,^1* Dennis L. Jenkins,^2* Anders Götherstrom,³ Nuria Naveran,⁴ Juan J. Sanchez,⁵ Michael Hofreiter,⁶ Philip Francis Thomsen,¹ Jonas Binladen,¹ Thomas F. G. Higham,⁷ Robert M. Yohe, II,⁸ Robert Parr,⁸ Linda Scott Cummings,⁹ Eske Willerslev¹

The timing of the first human migration into the Americas and its relation to the appearance of the Clovis technological complex in North America at about 11,000 to 10,800 radiocarbon years before the present (¹⁴C years B.P.) remains contentious. We establish that humans were present at Paisley 5 Mile Point Caves, in south-central Oregon, by 12,300 ¹⁴C years B.P., through the recovery of human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from coprolites, directly dated by accelerator mass spectrometry. The mtDNA corresponds to Native American founding haplogroups A2 and B2. The dates of the coprolites are >1000 ¹⁴C years earlier than currently accepted dates for the Clovis complex.

¹ Centre for Ancient Genetics, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
² Museum of Natural and Cultural History, 1224 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1224, USA.
³ Department of Evolutionary Biology, Uppsala University, Norbyvagten 18D, 74236 Uppsala, Sweden.
⁴ Instituto de Medicina Legal, Facultad de Medicina, University of Santiago de Compostela, San Francisco s/n 15782, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
⁵ National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Science, Canary Islands Delegation, 38320 Tenerife, Spain.
⁶ Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
⁷ Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3QY, UK.
⁸ Department of Sociology/Anthropology, California State University, 9001 Stockdale Highway, Bakersfield, CA 93311, USA.
⁹ Palaeo Research Institute, 2675 Youngfield Street, Golden, CO 80401, USA.

^* These authors contributed equally to this work.

To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ewillerslev{at}bi.ku.dk

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Science 320, 1787-1789
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