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American Roots

20 April 2013
Anthropology

At www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130417092013.htm … some new work on the early settlement of the Americas by the University of Barcelona (with an emphasis on South America) which has been published by PLOS Genetics. The study of DNA has shown that indigenous Americans, as opposed to more recent immigrants, people the Americas in several waves – with long periods of separation between each episode.

Shells can tell scientists about past climate by the amount of carbon they contain. The people of the Peruvian Moche culture, extent AD100-800, had a habit of burying clam shells with their dead and this appears to show El Nino/ La Nina fluctuations were greater in the past than they have been in 20th century. These impact on the South American coast, bringing wet weather in one aspect and dry weather in the other aspect – see www.insidescience.org/content/clamshells-reveal-secrets-pre-columbian-so…

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