Ancient DNA Pushes First Americans Into the Ice Age, but the Timeline Remains Contested
A new ancient-DNA study suggests the ancestors of today’s Indigenous peoples reached the Americas during the coldest stretch of the last Ice Age, narrowing the likely window to roughly 21,000 years ago or later. The finding strengthens a growing genetic case for an Ice Age arrival, but archaeologists say the debate is far from settled because the evidence still depends on how genetic lineages are interpreted against an incomplete fossil and site record.
