Fossilized Excrement of Early Americans

Long thought to be the first human inhabitants in North America, the Clovis culture, is now believed to have been preceded by humans at the Paisley Caves in Oregon.

The finding came from researchers at Copenhagen University who studied fossilized excrement.

The so-called "Clovis First" theory had until 2008 been accepted as unquestioned truth among archaeologists, who considered that the Clovis people - so called from 13,000 year old archaeological finds near the village of Clovis in New Mexico - were the true native Americans.

When the still more ancient 14,000-year-old excrement was found at the Paisley caves, it was pointed out by disgruntled boffins that no stone tools or other evidence of the type seen at Clovis had been found, and that the DNA poo evidence could have been erroneous.

Dr Dennis Jenkins of Copenhagen uni was having none of that, however, and he continued to poke about in the caves. Now he and his team are back, this time packing stone artifacts including "Western stemmed" stone projectiles and new, more comprehensive DNA dating.

Researchers claim that the debate is now over. Clovis wasn't first.