Spores of sporormiella, a fungus dependent on large herbivores such as mammoths and mastodons, disappeared from Page-Ladson's sediment record around 12,600 years ago, coinciding with the disappearance of large Ice Age animals elsewhere in North America.
Notes on verification
Confirmed by peer-reviewed primary source (Halligan et al. 2016, Science Advances), independently corroborated by a follow-up peer-reviewed study (Perrotti & van der Hammen 2017) and university press coverage. No contradicting sources found. [cascade flags: wikipedia_dropped_other_sources_exist | tier=silver indep_score=1.0 clusters=3 claim_tier=notable]
Sources
- Discovery Points to Earlier Arrival of First Americans (seed:history_and_archaeology)
- https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.1600375 (corroboration)
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S104061821730294X (corroboration)
- https://news.umich.edu/new-evidence-that-humans-settled-in-southeastern-us-far-earlier-than-previously-believed/ (corroboration)