The Science is Settled! What? Really?

Well, not really.  And this time it's not about climate science.  Apparently there has been some debate as to who the first 'native' Americans were.  The prevailing theory had been that the first natives appeared around what is now known as Clovis, New Mexico, around 13,000 years ago.

Not so fast:

The ancient people who have long been thought to be the first humans to colonise North America were actually johnny-come-latelies, according to scientists who have comprehesively analysed the ancient fossilised poo of their predecessor Americans.

The new revelations come to us courtesy of Copenhagen university, where some of the investigating boffins are based. The scientists say that their results demonstrate conclusively their somewhat controversial thesis: that the "Clovis" culture dating from around 13,000 years ago - which has long been thought to be the earliest human society in the Americas - was actually preceded by human habitation at the Paisley caves in Oregon.

Which, given that humans most likely crossed into the American continental landmass across the Bering land bridge, makes sense.  What's significant about this story is that it illustrates again how what is considered settled, rock solid science (koff, koff, AGW, koff), is so often proven not to be.

The so-called "Clovis First" theory had until 2008 been accepted as unquestioned truth among archaeologists, who considered that the Clovis people - so called from 13,000 year old archaeological finds near the village of Clovis in New Mexico - were the true native Americans. When the still more ancient 14,000-year-old excrement was found at the Paisley caves, it was pointed out by disgruntled boffins that no stone tools or other evidence of the type seen at Clovis had been found, and that the DNA poo evidence could have been erroneous.

Dr Dennis Jenkins of Copenhagen uni was having none of that, however, and he continued to poke about in the caves. Now he and his team are back, this time packing stone artifacts including "Western stemmed" stone projectiles and new, more comprehensive DNA dating.

In other words, Dr. Jenkins and company really knew their shit.

Read the whole article here.

Hat tip: Instapundit