Fossilized bison fossils uncovered from the Ice Age apparently provide new early migration clues about migration patterns of prehistoric humans in North America.

A new study from the University of California, Santa Cruz reveals an ice corridor that became open some 13,000 years back as humans followed and travelled bison populations that originated from the north to the southern region of the ice sheet.

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Scientists have long believed how these early humans utilized and traversed through an ice free corridor that is located in the Rocky Mountains, where they journeyed from Alaska and Yukon and other parts of North America, however, this remained a mystery until now.

According to coauthor of the study, and professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, Beth Shapiro from UC Santa Cruz, when this corridor opened, there are already human populations living down south from there. These populations were bison hunters and in this new study, we assume that they followed the bison as they migrated towards the north and into this corridor.

For researchers to track down this movement of the bisons during the Ice Age, they utilized radiocarbon dating and the mitochondrial DNA remnants found from the bison fossils. The team was also able to identify where the bison populations originate, either from the north or southern regions of the ice sheet. Shapiro adds how past findings reveal that these bison populations from each end of the ice sheets were also genetically distinct during the time this corridor have opened to humans.

The results suggest how the corridor's southern region became open first as southern bison populations began to migrate north some 13,400 years ago, even before the corridor became fully accessible. Scientists also determined how this southward movement of the northern bison populations, which resulted in overlapping two populations along the corridor some 13,000 years ago.

Apart from this, this corridor also provides new evidence and information from the Pleistocene Era in North America, that began 2.6 million years ago up until 11,700 years ago. Past evidence also suggests how ice sheets have fused together some 21,000 years ago which closed this corridor, showing how humans have already crossed this and have been living in the southern region.

This new study is published in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Tagsbison fossils, Ice age, bison ice age human migration, human migration north america, human migration, pleistocene era, ice age bison fossils