Ancient Crossroads

"There's been invasive species coming over from Asia for millennia. It's a real crossroads.&qhot; – Grant Zazula, Yukon Government Paleontologist. Did you know that it was as recent as 11,000 years ago that humans and animals crossed the land bridge migrating both to and from North America? Geologically speaking, 11,000 years ago may seem like just yesterday; however, it was actually more than 70 million years ago that the land bridge was first exposed and some of the early animal migrations of dinosaurs to and from North America took place. Researchers are quite certain that the turf of the land bridge had been traveled many times, having allowed for many significant animal migrations to take place. While we know now that early animal migrations were taking place over the millions of years (during the times the land bridge was actually exposed) for most of that time Beringia was uninhabited by humans.Scientists are uncertain when the first humans actually reached Beringia, but they are sure that the land bridge enabled the first human to migrate across the ancient land mass, eventually reaching the North American continent. Research indicates that the earliest indisputable evidence of human population dates back as recently as 16,000 years ago in western Beringia and 14,000 years ago in eastern Beringia.