Faeces hint at first Americans

Subject: Faeces hint at first Americans Thu Apr 03, 2008 7:24 pm

Fossilised faeces found in a US cave may help solve the riddle of when and how humans came to the Americas.

The samples date back just over 14,000 years, before the time of the Clovis culture.

Faeces hint at first Americans Launsi3

Clovis people dominated North and Central America around 13,000 years ago, and whether any groups came before them has been controversial.

In the journal Science, the researchers describe how their conclusion hinged on modern genetic analysis.

The 14 faecal fragments were discovered in caves near a lake in the north-western US state of Oregon, among other signs of ancient human occupation.

These included threads made from animal sinew and plant fibre, baskets, animal hides and wooden pegs.

The presence of these artefacts at various depths in the cave floor indicated it was populated for extensive periods - but by whom?

"We found a little pit in the bottom of a cave," related Dennis Jenkins from the University of Oregon, whose team excavated the Paisley Caves in 2002 and 2003.

"It was full of camel, horse and mountain sheep bones, and in there we found a human coprolite."

'Convincing evidence'

This and 13 other coprolites - fossilised faeces - proved the star attraction, because they contained tiny quantities of human mitochondrial DNA - genetic material found outside the nuclei of cells which is passed down from each mother to her children.

Several kinds of genetic analysis performed at several different laboratories confirmed that the DNA was human, and suggested the ancient cave residents were closely related to ethnic groups indigenous to Siberia and East Asia.

This adds to other strands of evidence suggesting that the Americas were settled from Siberia - and the age of the samples indicates the migration happened before the emergence of the Clovis culture with its distinctive fluted stone blades.

"If this doesn't convince what's left of the 'Clovis first' people, it should," University of California scholar David Smith, who was not involved in the study, told Science journal.

In an era when the north of the Americas were heavily glaciated, the question then is: how did the pre-Clovis people make the journey?

"The first humans either had to walk or sail along the American west coast to get around the ice cap," contended Eske Willerslev, director of the Centre for Ancient Genetics at Copenhagen University, who led the DNA work on the new study.

"That is, unless they arrived so long before the last ice age that the land passage wasn't yet blocked by ice."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7329505.stm

Subject: Re: Faeces hint at first Americans Thu Apr 03, 2008 7:49 pm

CovOps wrote:: The presence of these artefacts at various depths in the cave floor indicated it was populated for extensive periods - but by whom?

Its who, not whom!

:Imbecils:

Subject: Re: Faeces hint at first Americans Thu Apr 03, 2008 8:16 pm

Hmmm...
:Smirk:

Subject: Re: Faeces hint at first Americans Thu Apr 03, 2008 8:43 pm

Who is the subject of populated, no?

Subject: Re: Faeces hint at first Americans Thu Apr 03, 2008 9:03 pm

But artefacts is the subject of the sentence, is it not?

Subject: Re: Faeces hint at first Americans Thu Apr 03, 2008 9:11 pm

"it was populated for extensive periods - but by whom?"

I'm going by that clause.

Subject: Re: Faeces hint at first Americans Thu Apr 03, 2008 9:22 pm

Quote :: "it was populated for extensive periods - but by whom?"

I'm going by that clause.

Subject: Re: Faeces hint at first Americans Thu Apr 03, 2008 9:53 pm

CovOps wrote:

Quote :: "it was populated for extensive periods - but by whom?"

I'm going by that clause.

I've requested assistance!

Subject: Re: Faeces hint at first Americans Thu Apr 03, 2008 9:57 pm

Subject: Re: Faeces hint at first Americans Thu Apr 03, 2008 10:07 pm

Going on: Yes, the artefacts indicate it was populated by humans, but those artefacts don't say anything about which type of people, which is what the "by whom" is about.

Subject: Re: Faeces hint at first Americans Thu Apr 03, 2008 10:21 pm

But artefacts is the subject of the sentence, is it not?

Twisted Evil

Subject: Re: Faeces hint at first Americans Thu Apr 03, 2008 10:30 pm

But it is the object of the clause, is it not?

Twisted Evil

Subject: Re: Faeces hint at first Americans Thu Apr 03, 2008 10:44 pm

Subject: Re: Faeces hint at first Americans Thu Apr 03, 2008 10:55 pm

:Spam:

:Chainsaw:

Subject: Re: Faeces hint at first Americans Thu Apr 03, 2008 10:59 pm

Quote :: But it is the object of the clause, is it not?

But "it ie, the cave" surely is the subject of the clause, is it not? and "it" is having something done to it by being populated, ergo populated is the object of the sentence.

Subject: Re: Faeces hint at first Americans Thu Apr 03, 2008 11:01 pm

:Celebration Da :Hurra!: :Toot:

Subject: Re: Faeces hint at first Americans Thu Apr 03, 2008 11:05 pm

Quote :: But it is the object of the clause, is it not?

But "it ie, the cave" surely is the subject of the clause, is it not? and "it" is having something done to it by being populated,
which means it's the object.

ergo populated is the object of the sentence.
Jeez, 'populated' is the verb.

Subject: Re: Faeces hint at first Americans Thu Apr 03, 2008 11:08 pm

CovOps wrote:: :Celebration Da :Hurra!: :Toot:

:Pulling hair o

Subject: Re: Faeces hint at first Americans Thu Apr 03, 2008 11:43 pm

And the official answer is:

In this case, "whom" is the object of the preposition "by," so since the word is in the objective case, it should be "whom," as written. The subject of this sentence is not "artefacts," as your friend believes, as that word, too, is the object of a preposition, this time "of." The subject of this sentence is "presence," as in "the presence ... indicated."

Subject: Re: Faeces hint at first Americans Fri Apr 04, 2008 12:08 am

OK...
I agree with the first sentence in the above reply. And as soon as your adviser graduates, I'll consider the rest of it. :D

Still, you concede that I was correct and that the original sentence is correct, right?

Subject: Re: Faeces hint at first Americans Fri Apr 04, 2008 12:10 am

Hold on a minute mate, she has reconsidered:

Actually, I thought back on it. You have two predicate clauses in there. The first is "presence ... indicated," and the other is "it was populated." So, we might have been talking about two different things. In the second case, "it" is the subject, a pronoun referring back to "floor."

I'll reply to her. Hey, this is fun!

Subject: Re: Faeces hint at first Americans Fri Apr 04, 2008 12:13 am

:Explode: :Explode: :Explode:
:Imbecils: :Imbecils: :Imbecils:
:Pulling hair o :Pulling hair o :Pulling hair o
:Chainsaw: :Chainsaw: :Chainsaw:

Faeces hint at first Americans

Faeces hint at first Americans

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