Humans lived in North America long before the ice age

[Neosodon]

Found this slightly interesting. The human mutilated bones of a mastadon reveal that humans lived in North America 130,000 years ago - way before the ice age 15,000 years ago in which humans were thought to have crossed. But it leaves the question of how did humans make it to the western hemisphere. I guess there could of been another older ice age. I don't know too much about the cenazoic era.
http://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/mastodon-bone-findings-could-upend-our-understanding-human-history-n751406

[BlueKrono]

The earliest convincing evidence I've seen for humans crossing the Bering Strait was 19,000 years ago, a bit before the much-mentioned 15. This, however, is unprecedented.

[Loon]

Shows how much I know about the history of our species. I really need to brush up on human history/ancestry, anyone suggest any good books on the matter? Books that also don't say the world is 6,000 years old would also be much appreciated. 

[BlueKrono]

I wasn't satisfied with any history or timeline I'd seen before, so a few years ago I resolved to make my own. I spent months researching the great civilizations, advances in technology, human migration and extinction or domestication/cultivation of key species throughout the history of hominids and finally came up with a timeline of the 300 events that most shaped our lives today. So I might know a little more about all this than your average Joe.

[ItsTwentyBelow]

As someone who works in archaeology in the pacific northwest, evidence of hominins in the Americas 130,000 years ago is an outrageous claim. However unlikely, it's not completely out of the realm of possibility. If this research is accurate, it almost certainly was not the work of H. sapiens. My guess would be H. erectus. Possibly Denisovan hominins.

This is really going to come down to whether or not there is a consensus among researchers that the lithics were indeed manufactured by Homo, and the broken bones could not have resulted from any natural processes.

Will be interesting to hear what my coworkers think. I need to get in touch with my future adviser about this. Gives me some real inspiration for thesis topics as I prepare for my graduate studies in zooarchaeology this fall!

[suspsy]

I've been seeing a lot of scientists ripping this study apart. Some are arguing that the mastodon fossils were simply damaged by previous construction work that took place back in the 1990s'.

[Halichoeres]

In principle it would have been possible at various times throughout the Pleistocene to cross from Asia to North America via Beringia. The Ice Ages started about 2.5 million years ago and probably each of the 11 glacial maxima would have been sufficient to produce dry land. This is a pretty extraordinary claim, and I remain somewhat skeptical, but as ItsTwentyBelow points out, it's not at all out of the question.

[suspsy]

Here's a counterpoint article:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/danvergano/mastodon-mash?utm_term=.spA5lj4pe#.chpJX3enq

[Libraraptor]

I heard of a theory that once there was an Ice shield or belt over the Atlantic ocean from Europe to North American
and that Neanderthals had managed to cross it.

[ZoPteryx]

Very interesting, but I must admit to being highly skeptical.  Couldn't the same bone breakage the authors describe have been caused by the mastodon carcass getting battered against rocks as it floated downriver before finally coming to rest on the floodplain?

This SciAm article seems pretty fair:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ancient-bones-spark-fresh-debate-over-first-humans-in-the-americas/

[Paleogene Pals]

A stunning claim indeed. On a related note, I remember when I worked at the Iowa Geological Survey hearing about someone finding a worked piece of chert in a Sangamon paleosol. This was in a quarry near Iowa City. Of course, it was just one piece, and nobody really followed up on it. I think the piece of chert eventually disappeared or was misplaced, naturally. Anyway, it is probably nothing, but that is what I thought of when I read this story.