North America – first there was Clovis…Correction: North America, 1,000 years before the so-called ‘Clovis culture’ was clearly inhabited by what scientists believe to be the earliest human presence on the continent. Hundreds of coprolites samples, or fossilized human feces, have been discovered in a cave in Oregon, and the C14 analysis pointed out to the conclusion that they date back over 14,000 years ago.

The findings, published in Thursday’s edition of the online journal Science, suggest that at least 14,000 years ago, these people only stopped here for a short while, as the evidence found in the cave pointed out, but these are mere assumptions. Dennis L. Jenkins, archeologist from the University of Oregon, said they were most probably looking for food or hunting, as they stopped for a few days in the cave.

The only human artifacts found together with the preserved samples were made of stone, probably for hand use. “All we’re doing in this paper is identifying the haplogroups. We are not saying that these people were of a particular ethnic group. at this point, we know they most likely came from Siberia or Eastern Asia, and we know something about what they were eating, which is something we can learn from coprolites. We’re talking about human signature,” Jenkins said in a prepared statement.

Among the coprolite samples scientists found, the DNA was similar to that of red foxes, wolves or coyotes, which opens up two possibilities: either these early North Americans ate those animals, or the animals simply urinated later on the human feces.

“If our DNA evidence and radiocarbon dating hold up on additional coprolites that are now undergoing testing at multiple labs, then we have broken the Clovis sound barrier, if you will,” Jenkins added in his statement. “If you are looking for the first people in North America, you are going to have to step back more than 1,000 beyond Clovis to find them.”

The findings are consistent with the theory that the people who first populated North America came from Asia, as anthropologist Ripan Malhi of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Campaign, not part of the research team, told the Associated Press: “ancestors of native Americans used a coastal route during the colonization of the Americas.”

The explorations of the Paisley Caves in the Cascade Range, Oregon took place between 2002 and 2003 and were conducted by archaeologist Dennis L. Jenkins from the University of Oregon, M. Thomas P. Gilbert from the Centre for Ancient Genetics, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, who was responsible for the DNA analysis, and others.