New study claims humans lived in North America 130,000 years ago

SAN DIEGO, CA — A new study published in Nature finds that prehistoric humans occupied areas in California some 130,000 years ago.

The conclusion is based on a study of mastodon bones discovered near San Diego.

If the group is right, it would be a major change in our understanding of how early humans moved around the planet.

Right now, the earliest conclusive evidence of humans in the Americas is around 15,000 years old. Scientists believe those people arrived from Asia, and are the earliest ancestors of Native Americans.

If humans actually were in North America over 100,000 years earlier, they could be Neanderthals or a different lost human species.