http://www.livescience.com/58850-oldest-evidence-human-activity-north-america-photos.html[h=2]Broken bones[/h] Scientists have found what they are saying could be the oldest evidence of human activity in North America — the marked bones of a mastodon dating back some 130,000 years. The spiral fractures and other marks on the mastodon bones found in coastal San Diego County suggest they were processed while fresh, the researchers said. The findings, detailed in the journal Nature, suggest that a still-unknown hominin species was living in North America way before humans were thought to have arrived in the Americas. Here, fossil bones from a mastodon embedded in rock. The heads of the femurs are positioned with one up and one down, both broken in the same way — something the scientists said is unusual. Mastodon molars can be seen in the lower right-hand corner, near a broken vertebra. A mastodon rib bone can be seen in the upper left.
