Abstract
PROF. A. E. JENKS, of the University of Minnesota, reporting recently on “Minnesota man”, a female skeleton found in ancient lake deposits in 1931, attributes to it an age of approximately 20,000 years, and regards it as the oldest specimen of early man to be found in America. The teeth had all erupted, with the exception of the wisdom teeth, but as the long bones appear to be still immature, the age of the girl was probably about fifteen years. The teeth are larger than normal in prehistoric man. In summing up the characters of the skeleton, Prof. Jenks, it is stated by Science Service, regards it as Homo sapiens, of an early type of evolving Mongoloid, forecasting the aboriginal American, especially the Eskimo, rather than the modern Mongol. It has been computed that the Lake Pelican deposits, in which the skeletal remains were found, antedate those of the glacial Lake Agasiz by some two thousand years, thus warranting this increase in the age usually admitted for early man on the American continent.
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Early Man in Minnesota. Nature 139, 365 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/139365b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/139365b0