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Published Online April 3, 2008
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1154116

Reports

Submitted on December 13, 2007
Accepted on March 19, 2008

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

M. Thomas P. Gilbert 1{dagger}, Dennis L. Jenkins 2{dagger}, 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 II8, Robert Parr 8, Linda Scott Cummings 9, Eske Willerslev 1*

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.

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

{dagger}These authors contributed equally to this work.

The timing of the first human migration into the Americas and its relation to the appearance of the Clovis technological complex in North America ca. 11-10.8 thousand radiocarbon years before present (14C ka B.P.) remains contentious. We establish that humans were present at Paisley 5 Mile Point Caves, south-central Oregon, by 12,300 14C yr. B.P., through recovery of human 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.


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