The common belief is that the first people to America arrived some 13,500 years ago. A new theory led by anthropologists suggests otherwise. How much earlier? Perhaps 1,000-2,000 years.

Texas A&M University Professors Ted Goebel and Michael Waters and University of Utah Professor Dennis O’Rourke theorize migration through Alaska may have started as long ago as 15,000 years. They say their finding are supported by archaeological and more refined genetic evidence.

Modern theories revolved around the migration of people through the Beringia land bridge, which connected Alaska and eastern Siberia during the Pleistocene ice age, to Tierra del Fuego in South America. Goebel says scientists have concluded that the migration process was much more complex.

An article in Science magazine titled, "The Late Pleistocene Dispersal of Modern Humans in the Americas," relays their findings.