Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 31, 2026

Removal of Exogenous Materials from the Outer Portion of Frozen Cores to Investigate the Ancient Biological Communities Harbored Inside
Published on: July 3, 2016
The Yana RHS site: humans in the Arctic before the last glacial maximum
V V Pitulko1, P A Nikolsky, E Yu Girya
1Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences, 18 Dvortsovaya nab., St. Petersburg 191186, Russia. pitulko.volodya@nmnh.si.edu
Abstract:
A newly discovered Paleolithic site on the Yana River, Siberia, at 71 degrees N, lies well above the Arctic circle and dates to 27,000 radiocarbon years before present, during glacial times. This age is twice that of other known human occupations in any Arctic region. Artifacts at the site include a rare rhinoceros foreshaft, other mammoth foreshafts, and a wide variety of tools and flakes. This site shows that people adapted to this harsh, high-latitude, Late Pleistocene environment much earlier than previously thought.
Related Concept Videos
Speciation Rates
Habitat Fragmentation
What is Evolutionary History?
The Fossil Record
Diversity of Archaea II
Diversity of Archaea III

