Paleo-Indians or Paleo-Americans were the ancient peoples of the Americas who were present at the end of the last Ice Age. The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric time period during which Humans widely used stone for toolmaking The more Anthropomorphic Primates of the Hominini tribe are placed in the Hominina subtribe The Pliocene epoch (spelled Pleiocene in some older texts is the period in the Geologic timescale that extends The term Paleolithic (or Palaeolithic) (from Greek παλαιός palaios, " Old " and λίθος Lithos, "stone" The Lower Paleolithic (or Lower Palaeolithic) is the earliest subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Homo is the Genus that includes modern humans and their close relatives The control of Fire by early humans was a turning point in human cultural evolution that allowed for humans to proliferate due to the incorporation A stone tool is in the most general sense any Tool made of stone. The Middle Paleolithic (or Middle Palaeolithic) is the second subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, The Neanderthal (neɪˈændərtɑːl also with /niː-/ and /-θɔːl/ or Neandertal, is an extinct member of the Homo genus that is known from The term Archaic Homo sapiens refers generally to the earliest members of the species Homo sapiens. In Paleoanthropology, the recent African origin of modern humans is one of two hypotheses of the origin of anatomically modern humans Homo sapiens sapiens The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe Africa Behavioral modernity is a term used in Anthropology, Archeology and Sociology to refer to a list of traits that distinguish present day humans and their An atlatl (from Nahuatl ahtlatl; in English pronounced or) or spear-thrower is a Tool that uses Leverage to achieve greater velocity The origin of the domestic dog is the history of the ancestry and the Domestication of the Dog ( Canis lupus familiaris) The Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age was a period in the development of human technology in between the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age and the Neolithic or New Stone Age A microlith is a small stone tool typically knapped of Flint or Chert, usually about three centimetres long or less They are typically one Centimetre A bow is a Weapon that projects arrows powered by the elasticity of the bow A canoe is a small narrow Boat, typically human-powered though it may also be powered by sails or small electric or gas motors The Neolithic (from Greek νεολιθικός — neolithikos from νέος neos, "new" + λίθος lithos The Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (short PPNA around 9000 BC represents the early Neolithic in the Levantine and upper Mesopotamian region of the Fertile The Neolithic Revolution was the first Agricultural revolution &mdashthe transition from hunting and gathering communities and bands to Agriculture and Domestication (from Latin domesticus) refers to the process whereby a Population of Animals A stone tool is in the most general sense any Tool made of stone. The Neolithic (from Greek νεολιθικός — neolithikos from νέος neos, "new" + λίθος lithos Pottery is the Ceramic ware made by potters It also refers to a group of materials that includes Earthenware, Stoneware The Chalcolithic (Greek khalkos + lithos ' Copper stone' period or Copper Age period known as the '''Eneolithic''' ('''Æneolithic''' is a Metallurgy is a domain of Materials science that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their There are a number of hypotheses on many of the key issues regarding the domestication of the horse. A wheel is a circular device that is capable of rotating on its axis facilitating movement or transportation whilst supporting a load ( Mass) or performing labour in machines The term Bronze Age refers to a period in human cultural development when the most advanced Metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use included techniques for The Americas are the lands of the Western hemisphere or New World, consisting of the Continents of North America and South America An ice age is a period of long-term reduction in the Temperature of the Earth 's surface and atmosphere resulting in an expansion of continental Ice sheets The prefix "paleo" comes from the Greek palaios meaning "ancient", and refers to the Upper Paleolithic time period. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe Africa The best known of these peoples were part of the Clovis culture. The Clovis culture (sometimes referred to as the Llano culture) is a Prehistoric Paleoindian culture that first appears in the archaeological However, credible evidence of pre-Clovis Paleo-Indian cultures do not yet exist. Although many claims have been made of the existence of Pre-Clovis Paleo Indians in the Americas, none have as of yet been verified.

Paleo-Americans are believed to be the first people to have inhabited a large number of areas in the Americas, though they didn't inhabit the continent as a whole. The current prevailing theory postulates that Paleo-Indians entered the Americas from Asia via a land bridge (Beringia) connecting eastern Siberia with present-day Alaska when sea levels were significantly lower because of a widespread glaciation period ending about 10,000 years ago. The Bering land bridge was a Land bridge roughly 1000 miles (1600 km north to south at its greatest extent which joined present-day Alaska and eastern Siberia Siberia (Сиби́рь Sibir) is the name given to the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving Alaska ( Аляска Alyaska) is a state in the United States of America, in the northwest of the North American continent However, evidence suggestive of even earlier human occupation in South America at sites like Monte Verde in Chile (35,000 years), or in North America at Topper (50,000 years ago), have generated an alternative theory that Paleo-Indians, or at least some groups of them, may have come from the Pacific Islands or mainland Asia by watercraft. Monte Verde is an Archaeological site in south-central Chile, which has been dated to 14500 years before present Chile, officially the Republic of Chile ( Spanish:) is a country in South America occupying a long and narrow Coastal strip wedged between the Topper is an archaeological site located along the Savannah River in Allendale County South Carolina in the United States.

Paleo-Americans are believed to have been nomadic hunter-gatherers (They hunted a type of huge sloth, a type of bison, various species of mammoths and camels) whose following of animal migrations dictated where they camped. Nomadic people, (from the νομάδες nomádes, "those who let pasture herds" also known as nomads, are communities of people that A hunter-gatherer society is one whose primary subsistence method involves the direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild Foraging and Hunting Ground sloths are a diverse group of Extinct Sloths Mammals in the edentate Superorder Xenarthra. This is an article about an animal For other uses see Bison (disambiguation. Camels are Even-toed ungulates within the Genus Camelus. The Dromedary, one-humped or Arabian camel has a single hump and the As the glaciers that covered much of North America receded in the warming climate following the most recent glacial maximum, tundra foliage was the main plant growth. In physical Geography, tundra is an area where the Tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons Paleo-Indians living in the tundra hunted both large mammals like prehistoric bear, bison, and caribou, as well as smaller mammals like hare and arctic fox. Hares and jackrabbits are Leporids belonging to the Genus Lepus. The Arctic Fox ( Vulpes lagopus) also known as the White Fox or Snow Fox, is a small Fox native to cold Arctic regions of the Paleo-Indians also lived in the taiga, forested steppe, semi-arid temperate woodlands, and other ecozones. Taiga (ˈtaɪgə from Turkic or Mongolian) is a Biome characterized by Coniferous forests An ecozone or biogeographic realm is the largest scale biogeographic division of the earth's surface based on the historic and evolutionary distribution patterns Paleo-Americans are known to have hunted with both fluted stone-pointed wooden lancing spears and shorter spears thrown using an atlatl; they probably also foraged for edible plants. An atlatl (from Nahuatl ahtlatl; in English pronounced or) or spear-thrower is a Tool that uses Leverage to achieve greater velocity

Paleo-Americans likely traveled in small groups of approximately 20 or 50 members of an extended family. Archaeological evidence of particular kinds of fluted stone have been uncovered, suggesting trade occurred between such groups.

Archaic stage inhabitants of the Americas are believed to be direct descendants of Paleo-Americans. In the sequence of North American Pre-Columbian cultural stages first proposed by Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips in 1958 the Archaic period

Recent research

An article in the American Journal of Human Genetics states "Here we show, by using 86 complete mitochondrial genomes, that all Native American haplogroups, including haplogroup X, were part of a single founding population, thereby refuting multiple-migration models. The American Journal of Human Genetics is a leading Journal in the field of human Genetics. "^[1]

References

1. ^ http://www.ajhg.org/AJHG/fulltext/S0002-9297(08)00139-0# "Mitochondrial Population Genomics Supports a Single Pre-Clovis Origin with a Coastal Route for the Peopling of the Americas" Fagundes, Nelson J. R. ; Kanitz, Ricardo; Eckert, Roberta; Valls, Ana C. S. ; Bogo, Mauricio R. ; Salzano, Francisco M. ; Smith, David Glenn; Silva, Wilson A. ; Zago, Marco A. ; Ribeiro-dos-Santos, Andrea K. ; Santos, Sidney E. B. ; Petzl-Erler, Maria Luiza; Bonatto, Sandro L. American journal of human genetics(volume 82 issue 3 pp. 583 - 592)

External links

• Smithsonian Institute: Paleoamerican Origins
• Paleoindian & Other Archaeological Stuff
• Possible pre-Clovis Site in Ohio

Further reading

• Haynes, Gary (2002). The Early Settlement of North America: the Clovis Era. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-52463-6.  

• Mann, Charles C. (2005). 1491, New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. Knopf. ISBN-10: 140004006X.