Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 January 1917 — EARLIEST MEN AMERICANS? [ARTICLE]

EARLIEST MEN AMERICANS?

Geologist* Say Bone* Discovered ii) Florida Deposit Are 125,000 Years Oftk-——-Chicago.—Human brings inhabited the North American continent more than 125.000 years ago, according to the findings j>f E. H. Sellards. state geologist of Florida, and Prof. Oliver P. Hay, who made public results of a study of fossil remains discovered in Florida some months ago. Their opinion, however, is not fully concurred in by other scientists. Human bones those of the mas t odon, sabePtootTF tiger and-other extinct animals', were found in the deposit at Vero, and thither six geologists and anthropologists made their way immediately to study the find. Their report will be made in the .January-February (1917) issue of the .Journal of Geology. Advance sheets quote Mr. Seilard as saying: —“The study of the fossils of t Ins stratum, although not yet completed, has brought to light a considerable number of extinct species which suggest the reference <|f the deposit to the Pleistocene period. This is the oldest deposit from which human remains have ever been taken.” Doctor Hay. who is research associate of the Carnegie institution of Washington, expresses) similiir views; but four other scientists, whose articles will appear in the .Journal of Geology, are skeptical. They are Prof. R. T. Chamberlain of the University of Chicago, Thomas Wayland Vaughan of the United States geological survey. Dr. Ales Hrdlicka of the United States museum, fund Prof. George .Grant McCurdy of Yale. They are not convinced that the human race existed on this continent at so early a period.