I watched this last night on the history channel, very enlightening on theories as to how and where the paleo indians came from. Did you know there are more clovis camps in and around our nations capitol, than anywhere else in north america? It does come on again several times over the next few days.
RGS

Sweet! Thanks. I'll check it out. I figured the most camps would be around the great plains area.

another good read.
March 13, 2008, 11:44PM
Native Americans linked to 6 'founding mothers'
DNA helps trace maternal lineages from 18,000 to 21,000 years ago


By MALCOLM RITTER
Associated Press

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NEW YORK — Nearly all of today's Native Americans in North, Central and South America can trace part of their ancestry to six women whose descendants immigrated around 20,000 years ago, a DNA study suggests.

Those women left a particular DNA legacy that persists to today in about 95 percent of Native Americans, researchers said.

The finding does not mean that only these six women gave rise to the migrants who crossed into North America from Asia in the initial populating of the continent, said study co-author Ugo Perego.

The women lived between 18,000 and 21,000 years ago, though not necessarily at exactly the same time, he said.

The work was published this week by the journal PLoS One. Perego is from the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation in Salt Lake City and the University of Pavia in Italy.


Still some questions
The work confirms previous indications of the six maternal lineages, he said. But an expert unconnected with the study said the findings left some questions unanswered.

Perego and his colleagues traced the history of a particular kind of DNA that represents just a fraction of the human genetic material and reflects only a piece of a person's ancestry.

This DNA is found in the mitochondria, the power plants of cells. Unlike the DNA found in the nucleus, mitochondrial DNA is passed along only by the mother. So it follows a lineage that connects a person to his or her mother, then the mother's mother, and so on.

The researchers created a "family tree" that traces the different mitochondrial DNA lineages found in today's Native Americans. By noting mutations in each branch and applying a formula for how often such mutations arise, they calculated how old each branch was. That indicated when each branch arose in a single woman.


Living on the bridge
The six "founding mothers" apparently did not live in Asia because the DNA signatures they left behind aren't found there, Perego said. They probably lived in Beringia, the now-submerged land bridge that stretched to North America, he said.

Connie Mulligan of the University of Florida, an anthropologist who studies the colonization of the Americas but didn't participate in the new work, said it's not surprising to trace the mitochondrial DNA to six women. "It's an OK number to start with right now," but further work may change it slightly, she said.

That finding doesn't answer the bigger questions of where those women lived, or of how many people left Beringia to colonize the Americas, she said Thursday.

The estimate for when the women lived is open to question because it's not clear whether the researchers properly accounted for differing mutation rates in mitochondrial DNA, she said. Further work could change the estimate.

TONIGHTS THE NIGHT....SATURDAY 3 - 15 - 08

HISTORY CHANNEL...CABLE 61...1st at 7:00 PM then again at 11:00 PM

JOURNEY TO 10,000 BC...A real heavy slant towards flint tools showing actual knapping. A lot of details all brought together for a great story line including one of my favorite "theories"......THE NORTH ATLANTIC migration long before the clovis boys.

If flints your bag then this is your BAGDAD !!!

It sure is a neat program, and yes there is a large part about the flint napping and how the Paleo
points were altered as the need to change arose.
It was on again at 11:30, that makes 2 or three times I've watched it.
Yesterday I dug a 2"x2" piece of slate gorget with 3 intact holes and notches on the convex/unbroken end. Also a nicely preserved 1/2 of oyster shell, no drawings on it though, like the one you found.
We have the new PC here at the office with DSL. I'm still gonna need some help getting tictures sent!!
Soon!!!

Sam @ FRL

I missed it last night, but it comes on again Sat. March 22nd at 4:00 central time.