'Vanished world' near California could overturn a theory about ancient humans in North America

Scientists say that 13,000-year-old human remains and evidence found off the coast of California could change long-held theories about the first people who settled in the Americas. The discovery of this lost world also overturns the belief about how ancient humans first reached North America. The proof that the first settlers came on boats and did not cross an ice corridor was hidden in the Channel Islands. According to the "Clovis First" theory, the first humans in the Americas crossed over a land bridge connecting Siberia to Alaska. They then travelled south by walking through an "ice-free corridor" between massive glaciers in western Canada.

But a new documentary on the YouTube channel Timeline suggests that before the Clovis, Ice Age humans reached the Channel Islands through a coastal 'kelp highway,' using boats to move along the Pacific shoreline. Bones of pygmy mammoths and remains of archaeological sites were found on this chain of islands decades ago, shedding light on Ice Age life. The remains of Arlington Springs Man, found in the mid-20th century, are one of the most important ones. Some researchers say the discoveries point to a migration by sea, and believe that the evidence is waiting to be uncovered.

Did the first people reach North America on boats?

Clear proof of maritime movement remains missing, and when the first settlers arrived in the Americas is also up for debate. The eight California Channel Islands lie in the Pacific Ocean off Southern California. Frederic Caire Chiles, who has a PhD in history from the University of California at Santa Barbara, says, "They are the trace of a vanished world", referring to the eight California Channel Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

In 1959, scientists found the remains of Arlington Springs Man on Santa Rosa Island, and noted that it was 13,000 years old, the oldest dated human skeletal remains in North America. This meant it was roughly the same age as the Clovis culture, considered the first humans to live in Americas. However, the Clovis people lived inland, and this man lived on an island. This pointed to the possibility that seafaring technology existed much earlier than previously believed, and that some of them could have reached the continent by boat.

Some experts believe that the ice-free corridor may not have been fully open or ecologically viable at the time, further promoting the sea theory. Dr John Johnson, curator of anthropology at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, said it was a "kelp highway" that they used. "All the way from Japan to Baja California, there are kelp forest ecosystems that have very similar suites of animals," he said. This connected the idea that "an ancient coastal migration" using watercraft was possible, where they went around glaciers and finally reached California.