Old Crow River

Old Crow River is a river located in the the Bering Sea Watershed of the Yukon. The river is a tributary of Porcupine River.

Archaeology Finds

Richard E. Morlan of the Canadian National Museum of Man and Archeological Survey of Canada conducted a study of modified bones found on Old Crow River sites in the 1970s. Morlan stated that the bones found exhibited signs of intentional human work before the bones were fossilized. This would suggest humans were in Canada during the late Pleistocene. This would place humans in the Americas earlier than thought by scientists. ^[1]

Later R.M. Thorson and R.D. Guthrie tried to refute Morlan's research in a study they conducted. Thorson and Guthrie claimed that river action could cause the markings on the bones that Morlan attributed to humans. ^[2] Morlan believed Thorson's experiments have not shown that all the altered fossils from Old Crow Basin can attributed to river icing and breakup.^[3]

References

1. ^ Morlan, R.E. (1986), Pleistocene archaeology in Old Crow Basin: a critical reappraisal. In Bryan, A.L.,ed. New Evidence for the Pleistocene Peopling of the Americas. Orono,Maine,Center for the study of Early Man,pp.27-48. 
2. ^ Thorson, R. M., and Guthrie, R.D. (1984), River ice as a taphonomic agent:an alternative hypothesis for bone 'artfacts.'Quaternary Research,22:172-188. 
3. ^ Morlan, R.E. (1986), Pleistocene archaeology in Old Crow Basin: a critical reappraisal. In Bryan, A.L.,ed. New Evidence for the Pleistocene Peopling of the Americas. Orono,Maine,Center for the study of Early Man,pp.27-48.