Breakthrough: This picture shows the entire rib fragment with the embedded spear, which proves that human hunters populated north America 1,000 years earlier than previously thought
{"Image ImageDescription": "Embargoed to 1900 Thursday October 20\rUndated handout photo issued by University of Copenhagen of a mastodon rib with the embedded bone projectile point. (A) Closeup view. (B) Reconstruction showing the bone point with the broken tip. The thin layer represents the exterior of the rib. (C) CT X-ray showing the long shaft of the point from the exterior to the interior of the rib. (D) The entire rib fragment with the embedded bone projectile point. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Thursday October 20, 2011. A bone spearpoint lodged in a mastodon is evidence that human hunters populated north America 1,000 years earlier than previously thought, research has shown.The tip, itself carved from mastodon bone, is embedded in a rib from one of the creatures, a relative of the elephant and woolly mammoth. After a 30-year wait, carbon dating has now confirmed that the bone and spearpoint are both around 13,800 years old. See PA story SCIENCE Mastodon. Photo credit should read: University of Copenhagen/PA Wire \r\rNOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder.", "Image Software": "Picasa", "Image Artist": "University of Copenhagen"}