Discovery in paleontologist's backyard reveals evidence of North America's early humans - KSL.com

The roughly 37,000-year-old remains of a female mammoth and her calf show distinct signs of butchering, providing new evidence that humans may have arrived in North America much earlier than believed.

Two six-week excavations took place at the site in 2015 and 2016, but analysis in the lab has taken much longer and remains ongoing, Rowe said.

Multiple finds at the site paint a portrait of what took place there thousands of years ago, including bone tools, evidence of a fire, bones bearing fractures and other signs of animal butchering by humans.

The humans who butchered the mammoths were thorough, Rowe said.

Collagen taken from the mammoth bones helped the researchers determine that the animals were butchered at the site between 36,250 and 38,900 years ago.

This age range makes the New Mexico site one of the oldest that ancient humans created in North America, researchers said.

Scientists have debated for years about when early humans first arrived in North America.

The position of the site, which is well within North America's western interior, suggests that the first humans arrived well before 37,000 years ago, according to the study.