The earliest settlers of Mesoamerica date back to the late Pleistocene

PLoS One. 2017 Aug 30;12(8):e0183345. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0183345. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Preceramic human skeletal remains preserved in submerged caves near Tulum in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, Mexico, reveal conflicting results regarding 14C dating. Here we use U-series techniques for dating a stalagmite overgrowing the pelvis of a human skeleton discovered in the submerged Chan Hol cave. The oldest closed system U/Th age comes from around 21 mm above the pelvis defining the terminus ante quem for the pelvis to 11311±370 y BP. However, the skeleton might be considerable older, probably as old as 13 ky BP as indicated by the speleothem stable isotope data. The Chan Hol individual confirms a late Pleistocene settling of Mesoamerica and represents one of the oldest human osteological remains in America.

MeSH terms

  • Carbon Radioisotopes / metabolism
  • Caves*
  • Fossils*
  • Humans
  • Mexico
  • Paleontology / methods*
  • Pelvis / anatomy & histology
  • Radiometric Dating / methods*
  • Skeleton / anatomy & histology
  • Thorium / metabolism
  • Time Factors
  • Uranium / metabolism

Substances

  • Carbon Radioisotopes
  • Uranium
  • Thorium

Grants and funding

All the funding or sources of support received during this specific study have been presented. This financial support was granted to us by the Internationales Büro of the German Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF project 01DN119) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG project STI 128/28-1). MD acknowledges support by the Irish Research Council (IRC) by a Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship (GOIPD/2015/789). BMBF and DFG financed our field work in Mexico and provided funds for laboratory work. Author Michael Deininger received a salary from the IRC during part of this study. Other than that the funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.