Well, the file is open. From Colin Barras at New Scientist:
An extraordinary chapter has just been added to the story of the First Americans. Finds at a site in California suggest that the New World might have first been reached at least 130,000 years ago – more than 100,000 years earlier than conventionally thought.
If the evidence stacks up, the earliest people to reach the Americas may have been Neanderthals or Denisovans rather than modern humans. Researchers may have to come to terms with the fact that they have barely scratched the surface of the North American archaeological record. More.
Barely scratched the surface? Now, that part we should have realized a long time ago. We didn’t find what we were not looking for. If it’s true, something else is certain to turn up.
See also: Were there humans in North America 100 thousand years ago? We all await further news.
Neanderthal Man: The long-lost relative turns up again, this time with documents
Meanwhile:
Homo Naledi had sophisticated but small brain Throughout the animal kingdom, the relationship between a brain and intelligence is much more complex than is sometimes supposed.
Why is the recent dating of Homo Naledi to 250 kya a problem?
and
Australopithecus Sediba to be dumped from human family?
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