Were Homo Sapiens the First Hominid in North America? A Deep Dive into the Cerutti Mastodon Site

Honestly, "Steve the construction man who keeps finding sites" sounds like it would make a good kids tv show, like bob the builder but instead of fixing things he just accidentally finds archaeological and paleontological sites and then his buddy the scientist teaches kids about newly found animals and human history discoveries.

Bro a 3 day premiere?? Enough foreplay and just stick it in In all seriousness you quickly became one of my favorite youtubers. Can't wait to learn about big hairy elephants

I may be in the minority here, but I just wanna say, I had no prior interest in archeology, and stumbled on this channel, and just really like the way you present. Your passion and well written script makes me want to learn more about archeology from you. That said, I deeply appreciate your spark notes, because the assumption that I know anything about theories of early human migration to North America is incorrect.

Richard Cerutti who discovered this was my grandfather. Pretty cool. Glad it's getting attention.

To me archeology feels like trying to reconstruct a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle when you find two pieces by the side of the road, and one of them is chewed up a bit and you can't even be sure they're from the same picture. It is amazing the ways y'all found to date and interpret all kinds of evidence and it requires so much interaction with every discipline ranging from physics to medicine to anthropology.

What inspired my passion towards archeology was actually when a child with craniosynostosis who lived during the middle Pleistocene was discovered back in like '09, the fact that this kid was cared for by our early ancestors proves that we have always had an immense capacity towards loving one another

I appreciate Milo because he doesn't try to dumb his content down for his viewers. He brings his viewers up to understand his content instead.

In regards to that last segment about early humans, what sticks out to me the most are the Cueva da las Manos hand paintings. One Twitter comment put it best, saying "It's like watching ancient people reaching out through time, saying "We were here. We were alive. We were human. We had feelings, thoughts, emotions, all just as complex as yours"." And I think that's such a beautiful thought that perfectly corroborates what Milo is saying, early humans are just that; humans that were from a time long long before ours. They too had an artistic sense that they used to quite literally paint a picture of the world they lived in for generations to come, potentially even eons after they've drawn their last breath

I swear these new channels are blowing old ones out of the water, Milo, dude, way to go. I cannot express how incredible it is to see someone encouraging that chase of knowledge, your channel is probably one of the top 3 new channels on this site, without a doubt. Thanks for all that you do, and I always appreciate the interesting lessons.

I realize it's a movie but the baby's father in the movie Ice Age was surprisingly depicted as a person; capable of love and ceremony and that's how I prefer to imagine early hominids.

I talked with my anthropology professor about anxiety and depression often. There is interesting discussion on if one of the causes of anxiety and depression are the differences from our current social/work environment and the ones that we as a species adapted to. There’s really not a lot of reasons to think that our ancient homies weren’t having existential crises and worried for reasons beyond the actual threats they faced. Either way, it would suck to think exactly like we do today.

Hearing the part at 26:58 really made me stop and think about how small we as individuals are. Like, as a species, we have been human for quite literally as long as we have existed. We empathized and cared for the elderly and wounded, we buried our dead, we mourned our losses. It's staggering to know how long we as humans have been doing the things that we do.

In 30 minutes you've gone and quadrupled my knowledge about the first humans in the Americas. I legitimately thought the Bering land bridge was a proven, uncontested fact and that human migration to the Americas was fairly linear. Also had no idea we were in an ice age. That's what I get for studying the arts lol.

It's a bit tragic that it's virtually impossible to search for more dig sites in the larger area as it has become a concrete jungle. Heck the remains, of whatever Hominin scavenged the Mastodon, might have been destroyed a long time ago. Finally, if other animals have crossed between Asia and North America multiple times, there should be no reason why other hominins couldn't have.

If this was indeed another hominid I wonder if some populations lasted long enough to encounter modern humans crossing into North America, and if those ancient encounters are hinted at in folklore. Very interesting stuff.

I have to share this video. Trying to explain to some people that if we could pluck a baby from 300k years ago and raised it today no one would be able to tell. That functionally we have been the same for a long long time. I frocking love the idea that humans moved so much earlier than could have been imagined! I hope I love long enough to see this if not proven at least opened up for more scientific possibility. Your a cute kid sir! Thanks for the video.

As a avid outdoorsman, finding whatever is nearby for smashing truly embodies the craft.

I really love how you circle back to them being human and not the "knuckle dragging primitives" we've always been taught. I also appreciate it when you talk about early humans because you don't talk about them like they're just another artifact (although they are), you give them the same amount of humanity as if you are talking to a loved one. Your channel is so so underrated and one of my absolute favourites. Thank you so much for teaching all of us ‪( ˶ ᷇𖥦 ᷆ ˵ )

Dude it has been SO LONG since someone has made me feel genuine wonder about an educational topic. Literal tears came to my eyes. Good shit

I'm Sicangu/Choctaw and have done extensive DNA testing (23andMe, GEDMatch, FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage, AncestryDNA, Illustrative DNA, genomelink, Nebula genomics, ADNTRO, and other private ones) and reviewed that of others in my immediate family, extended family, and very distant family (1cm or less) that are indigenous. We all have not only significant Neanderthal DNA but also significant Denisovan DNA markers. I ran Native North American DNA privately collected through Latin American DNA service called Somos Ancestria and we show up as closest to the (in order of closest to farthest relation) Mixteca, Zaptoec, Huichol, and Andean Peruvian Aymaras/Quechuas, Pimas, Triqui, and Tarahumara specifically. It's like seeing the migration pattern going from north to south (or south to north) . We also all have Central and South Asian DNA traces with some going as far as to specify Pakistan surrounding countries (not expected as the Mongolian and East Asian which was also present and is well documented) as well as significant reoccurring Austronesian DNA traces and markers. We also show up as having Malagasy trace DNA and markers. Multiple samples were from 70- 90 year old full blood Lakotas from the reservation and from full blood Choctaws living in Oklahoma. We have no Aleutian or Artic DNA. When doing DNA analysis I've also encounter 1-10% that is routinely unable to be identified and the pattern is specific to families and clearly inheritable. I think the peopling of the Americas happened quite a bit before 23, 000 years ago and archaeology has yet to unearth it (assuming there remans evidence and it wasn't all destroyed by rising sea levels in a Kelp Highway scenario). I think it happened in waves with some ancestral populations dying off and merging with new waves. Some had the Austonesia/Denisovan DNA and some had the Neanderthal and Ancient Siberian DNA and at some point they converged in the old world and possibly here. The Cerutti Mastadon Site could be evidence of that. Indigenous people throughout the Americas also have oral histories and legends of smaller human-like peoples here that I'm inclined to believe were probably a remnant population of one of the first waves of modern homo sapien admixed people with significant non-Homo Sapien ancestry and possibly unknown Hominini ancestry.