A newly-published paper from paleontologists working out of San Diego suggests that humans may have resided in California as far back as 130,000 years ago!
The findings are being heralded as having the potential to completely re-write the history of America as scientists previously believed the first humans had arrived around 30,000 years ago.
Researchers derived the colossal conclusion following the discovery of mastodon bones that were smashed with rocks in a way that indicates their destruction had been deliberately done by humans using the stones as rudimentary tools.
Subsequent testing of the bones revealed their jaw-dropping age which astounded both the team behind the study as well as the scientific community.
"I didn't believe. I still don't believe it, properly," paleontologist John McNabb marveled, "and if it does turn out to be true, it changes absolutely everything."
If confirmed, McNabb noted that the study would force scientists to rethink how and when humans may have arrived in America as well as ask the question "which humans are they going to be?"
For now, the lack of human remains at the site provides a loophole, of sorts, for skeptical scientists since the omission makes the study largely speculative.
Should future digs in and around the area unearth a human from that time period, McNabb mused, it will open a whole new chapter in archaeology.
Source: Nature