Washington, Oct 23 (EFE) .- prehistoric tools found at high altitudes in two sites in Peru reveal the ability of humans to survive extreme environmental conditions from a millennium earlier than previously thought, according to a study published today in the journal “Science”.
The international team led by Kurt Rademaker, University of Maine (USA), has been discovered in Pucuncho basin in the southern Peruvian Andes over 4,500 meters above sea level, evidence of what may be the oldest human presence in such high points, more than 12,000 years ago, during the Late Pleistocene.
This finding changes the idea of human adaptation environments at high altitudes, as it advances the presence of human settlements above 4,000 meters nearly a millennium, and suggests that adaptation to these environments could have happened faster or earlier than previously thought.
“Studying human adaptation to extreme conditions is important for understanding our cultural and genetic ability to survive,” said Rademaker.
By the remains found, researchers believe that in this environment They were small groups of hunter-gatherers established, although it is unclear if some or all year periods.
At the site of Cuncaicha, located 4,480 meters above sea level, the team found several tools, animal bones and roots consumed as food, signs of having been an inhabited place.
In Pucuncho, at 4355 meters, experts unearthed tools made of stone that could have been used to hunt vicuñas, an animal similar to the flame adapted to higher ground.
“We do not know if the people living there all year, but we who were not there just to hunt for a few days, and then left,” said Sonia Zarrillo University of Calgary and co-author of the study.
The regions at high altitudes have been less studied by archaeologists and there are still studies on how early humans survived in such places characterized by less oxygen, high radiation sun and cold temperatures.
Some theories suggest that humans were genetically adapted over thousands of years, as shown by the current Andean populations (greater lung capacity and higher hemoglobin concentrations to overcome the lack of oxygen) while others consider that had to be environmental changes, including glacial retreat.
The results Rademaker team are a challenge for the scientific community, because the glaciers in this region never reached the Basin Pucuncho and therefore never backed down to create an opening that allowed humans to migrate out there, suggesting that climate change was not necessary for successful colonization.
And on the other hand, artifacts found Pucuncho Basin suggest that humans colonized high altitudes only 2000 years after their initial entry into South America, indicating that apparently did not take a long period of human adaptation.
Researchers suggest it will be necessary to further archaeological and comparative genome studies, to find out when evolved genetic adaptations identified in the current Andean population.
elv / pa / cr
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