# The first inhabitants of the Americas came from the Bering Strait? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 14, 2012, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-inhabitants-of-the-americas-came-from-the-bering-strait/640936 "2012-11-14T00:58:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-inhabitants-of-the-americas-came-from-the-bering-strait/640936/21 "2012-11-16T22:17:56Z")
I just happened upon this article that relates to our discussion. This is ca. 12,000 years ago: [California Islands Give Up Evidence of Early Seafaring: Numerous Artifacts Found at Late Pleistocene Sites On the Channel Islands](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110303141540.htm) ---
**Author:** ![cougar58](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@cougar58](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cougar58)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-inhabitants-of-the-americas-came-from-the-bering-strait/640936/22 "2012-11-16T23:02:01Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > The [Solutrean hypothesis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solutrean_hypothesis) that envisions people crossing via sea ice from France and Spain was an ingenious conjecture, but there is very little evidence in favor of it and considerable evidence against. See especially the section in that article recent genetic research. “Soul Train Hypothesis?” AKA the “hippest trip to America” ---
**Author:** ![bonitahi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7993a0/32.png) [@bonitahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonitahi)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-inhabitants-of-the-americas-came-from-the-bering-strait/640936/23 "2012-11-17T00:31:29Z")
What has not been considered here is panspermia. Interstellar transportation of early life to NA is not out of the question. As evolution is in the habit of evolving, the growth to man having taken possibly billions of years could have happened in NA, from start till now. Panspermia could have been the kick start of a shorter or quicker version of our accent in our native lands. Our family tree may have a unique branch from much further away than Asia, Europe or even aboriginal Africa. ---
**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-inhabitants-of-the-americas-came-from-the-bering-strait/640936/24 "2012-11-17T00:45:37Z")
Your contention is that two completely separate groups of humans evolved on earth while separated by oceans, and billions of years later they were just lucky to be almost exactly identical and to be able to successfully reproduce? ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-inhabitants-of-the-americas-came-from-the-bering-strait/640936/25 "2012-11-17T02:03:05Z")
> [@bonitahi](#): > > What has not been considered here is panspermia. Interstellar transportation of early life to NA is not out of the question. There’s a very good reason why it isn’t considered. It’s absurd and there’s no evidence to suggest it ever happened. It’s a new-age fantasy. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-inhabitants-of-the-americas-came-from-the-bering-strait/640936/26 "2012-11-17T02:13:18Z")
> [@bonitahi](#): > > What has not been considered here is panspermia. Interstellar transportation of early life to NA > is not out of the question. As evolution is in the habit of evolving, the growth to man having taken possibly billions of years could have happened in NA, from start till now. Panspermia could have been the kick start of a shorter or quicker version of our accent in our native lands. > > Our family tree may have a unique branch from much further away than Asia, Europe or even aboriginal Africa. Actually, we have sufficient information to know that this did not happen. DNA mapping shows a continuous flow of minute changes originating in Africa and extending around the world. There is no abrupt leap in DNA from Eurasia or Africa to the Americas. Instead, we find the slow accumulation of differences steadily moving from Africa into Eurasia, then into Australia and Oceania and into the Americas. In addition, we have not found any fossil evidence of humanoid precursors in the Americas. In the early 1950s, before we understood just how fundamental DNA is, we could entertain notions of polygenesis and a panspermian origin of that polygenesis could be conjectured. (Even then it was only a wild conjecture that had little to support it.) However, ever since the discoveries of Crick, Watson, Wilkins, and Franklin the notion of polygenesis began to be shown to be less of a possibility until decades ago it finally lost any hope to be any more than a dead end branch of speculation. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-inhabitants-of-the-americas-came-from-the-bering-strait/640936/27 "2012-11-17T06:01:46Z")
> [@bonitahi](#): > > is not out of the question. It is, actually, based on all available evidence. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-inhabitants-of-the-americas-came-from-the-bering-strait/640936/28 "2012-11-17T06:05:36Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > It’s a new-age fantasy. Much like Mr. Twain, you repeat yourself… ---
**Author:** ![bonitahi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7993a0/32.png) [@bonitahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonitahi)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-inhabitants-of-the-americas-came-from-the-bering-strait/640936/29 "2012-11-18T00:27:39Z")
> [@sitchensis](#): > > Your contention is that two completely separate groups of humans evolved on earth while separated by oceans, and billions of years later they were just lucky to be almost exactly identical and to be able to successfully reproduce? I would leave luck out of it but yes, that is my contention. ---
**Author:** ![bonitahi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7993a0/32.png) [@bonitahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonitahi)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-inhabitants-of-the-americas-came-from-the-bering-strait/640936/30 "2012-11-18T00:39:40Z")
Thank you both tomndebb & Colibri for directing my thinking to more empirical thinking. Can we rule panspermia out by saying there was no original life landing of alien bacteria-virus in Africa where man evolved from? ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-inhabitants-of-the-americas-came-from-the-bering-strait/640936/31 "2012-11-18T01:35:17Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Much like Mr. Twain, you repeat yourself… **Jayjay,** you, I, and the esteemed Mr. Twain, have been around here too long. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-inhabitants-of-the-americas-came-from-the-bering-strait/640936/32 "2012-11-18T03:09:38Z")
I believe I read in 1491 by Charles Mann that there might have been peoples that migrated from Australia to South America 10’s of thousands of years ago. I no longer have that book. Is there any DNA to support this? ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-inhabitants-of-the-americas-came-from-the-bering-strait/640936/33 "2012-11-18T03:19:53Z")
> [@harmonicamoon](#): > > I believe I read in 1491 by Charles Mann that there might have been peoples that migrated from Australia to South America 10’s of thousands of years ago. I no longer have that book. Is there any DNA to support this? IANAAnthropologist, but I don’t believe so. Interestingly, Thor Heyerdahl showed that migration in the opposite direction (S. America to Easter Island and on to Polynesia) was _possible,_ but that doesn’t mean it was accomplished, let alone common. Considering the difficult, extreme distances across the Pacific Ocean compared to the relatively easy coastal-following north-south routes, it seems far, far, far less likely. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-inhabitants-of-the-americas-came-from-the-bering-strait/640936/34 "2012-11-18T17:59:57Z")
> [@bonitahi](#): > > Can we rule panspermia out by saying there was no original life landing of alien bacteria-virus in Africa where man evolved from? Whether or not panspermia occurred, we can rule out separate colonization events on different continents. All life on Earth has a single origin, and certainly has not been evolving separately on different continents for billions of years. The continents themselves did not exist in their present form billions of years ago, and South America and Africa were part of the same continent as recently as 120 million years ago. The idea is contradicted by everything we know about genetics, evolution, Earth history, and paleontology. ---
**Author:** ![Grim\_Render](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@Grim\_Render](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grim_Render)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-inhabitants-of-the-americas-came-from-the-bering-strait/640936/35 "2012-11-18T18:01:47Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > There is a claim that the oldest site is way down at the southern tip of South America. It would follow that there was some route to get there. Why aren’t there older sites long the way or is it that they were hunters/gatherers until they reached the end? I’ve read speculation that these sites may be the resut of a single-event crossing from Australia. I do not believe there is evidence to support that, though. Australia has been peopled for at least 40 000 years, and probably had at least three waves of migration. As the theory goes, the circumpolar current around the Antarctic is fast, stable, and would take someone lost at sea south of Australia pretty straight from Australia to South America. Such as crossing would be very hard to survive, but if you did, thats where you’d end up. The late colonization of New Zealand argues against this theory. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-inhabitants-of-the-americas-came-from-the-bering-strait/640936/36 "2012-11-18T18:05:43Z")
> [@Grim\_Render](#): > > I’ve read speculation that these sites may be the resut of a single-event crossing from Australia. I do not believe there is evidence to support that, though. > > Australia has been peopled for at least 40 000 years, and probably had at least three waves of migration. As the theory goes, the circumpolar current around the Antarctic is fast, stable, and would take someone lost at sea south of Australia pretty straight from Australia to South America. Such as crossing would be very hard to survive, but if you did, thats where you’d end up. > > The late colonization of New Zealand argues against this theory. After reading the great responses to this thread, I am inclined to believe that most of them were on the coast at the time and are now underwater and all traces are gone. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-inhabitants-of-the-americas-came-from-the-bering-strait/640936/37 "2012-11-18T20:33:20Z")
> [@Esox\_Lucius](#): > > There’s tantalizing, but inconclusive, evidence that the first visitors to the Americas were from farther south in Asia, not from Siberia. Kennewick Man in Washington State and many skeletons in South America look more Polynesian than Siberian, and are among the oldest skeletons found in the Americas. When the Spaniards first reached the West Coast in the 1500’s, there were tribes on the Baja Peninsula (that have since died out) who were physically and linguistically distinct from other tribes, and might have been the last remnants of these people. If they were indeed from southern Asia, they might have intentionally island-hopped across the Pacific, or been accidentally blown across, rather than cross the Bering land bridge. Here’s [an article on some of the evidence.](http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/3774) All of the evidence I am aware of is skeletal, which is more difficult to interpret than genetic data. To date, all the genetic evidence indicates the colonists of the Americas came from northeast Asia. While Australoid-type peoples made it by boat to Australia, the Philippines and to the islands of Melanesia, you would think that if they were capable of reaching the Americas they would have left some evidence on the Polynesian islands in between. If Australoids did reach the Americas - which I consider possible - I think it would more likely to be by the coastal route later followed by the northeast Asian colonists. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-inhabitants-of-the-americas-came-from-the-bering-strait/640936/38 "2012-11-19T00:25:10Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > While Australoid-type peoples made it by boat to Australia, the Philippines and to the islands of Melanesia, you would think that if they were capable of reaching the Americas they would have left some evidence on the Polynesian islands in between. If Australoids did reach the Americas - which I consider possible - I think it would more likely to be by the coastal route later followed by the northeast Asian colonists. There aren’t a lot of Polynesian islands between Australia and the Americas, and New Zealand doesn’t appear to be populated that early. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-inhabitants-of-the-americas-came-from-the-bering-strait/640936/39 "2012-11-19T00:39:24Z")
Native Americans share some teeth root thing with Asians. Both have four roots on a tooth that Europeans have two, as I recall. Do they share that with Polynesians? ---
**Author:** ![Grim\_Render](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@Grim\_Render](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grim_Render)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-inhabitants-of-the-americas-came-from-the-bering-strait/640936/40 "2012-11-19T00:58:50Z")
I would like to mention the [Beringia Isolation Hypothesis](http://www.science20.com/news_account/new_hypothesis_on_migration_from_asia_to_america_beringian_standstill), just for the sheer coolness. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-inhabitants-of-the-americas-came-from-the-bering-strait/640936.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-inhabitants-of-the-americas-came-from-the-bering-strait/640936.md?page=3)