The Bering Land Bridge, or Beringia,
emerged in the Bering and Chukchi
Seas following a gradual drop in sea
level during the Quaternary period (the
5 last 2 million years). About 20,000 years
ago the land bridge extended from
Unalaska Island of the Aleutian chain on
the southeast, and from near the mouth
of the Mackenzie River of Canada on
10 the east to near the Kolyma and
Indigirka rivers of eastern Siberia on the
west, and northwestward to Cape
Olyutorsky of the Koryak area north of
the Kamchatka Peninsula.
15 Archaeologists believe that the first
humans to penetrate North America
used this bridge, migrating from
northeast Asia to northwestern Canada.
This migration probably occurred during
20 the last major phase of the Wisconsin
glaciation, a period that began
approximately 30,000 years ago and
lasted approximately 20,000 years. As
this period ended, the two continents
25 were separated as major continental ice
sheets and other glaciers melted and
caused the sea level to rise again.
When the bridge existed, much of the
area was not glaciated; it supported
30 Arctic vegetation, particularly tundra, dry
grasslands, marsh vegetation, and
boreal forests. These plants supplied
ample food for grazing animals,
including horses, reindeer, and such Ice
35 Age species as mammoths, mastodons,
and woolly rhinoceros. The presence of
fish and bird fossils points to the
possibility that Beringia could have
supported human communities.
The author's argument in the second paragraph would be most supported by the discovery of
a 20,000-year-old, undersized mammoth skeleton on the Kamchatka Peninsula
18,000-year-old cave drawings depicting humans and animals near the Mackenzie River
fossilized vegetation at Cape Olyutorsky that may have been part of the mammoth's diet
a 35,000-year-old reindeer skeleton near the Kolyma River
similar 20,000-year-old human skeletons on Unalaska Island and at Cape Olyutorsky
emerged in the Bering and Chukchi
Seas following a gradual drop in sea
level during the Quaternary period (the
5 last 2 million years). About 20,000 years
ago the land bridge extended from
Unalaska Island of the Aleutian chain on
the southeast, and from near the mouth
of the Mackenzie River of Canada on
10 the east to near the Kolyma and
Indigirka rivers of eastern Siberia on the
west, and northwestward to Cape
Olyutorsky of the Koryak area north of
the Kamchatka Peninsula.
15 Archaeologists believe that the first
humans to penetrate North America
used this bridge, migrating from
northeast Asia to northwestern Canada.
This migration probably occurred during
20 the last major phase of the Wisconsin
glaciation, a period that began
approximately 30,000 years ago and
lasted approximately 20,000 years. As
this period ended, the two continents
25 were separated as major continental ice
sheets and other glaciers melted and
caused the sea level to rise again.
When the bridge existed, much of the
area was not glaciated; it supported
30 Arctic vegetation, particularly tundra, dry
grasslands, marsh vegetation, and
boreal forests. These plants supplied
ample food for grazing animals,
including horses, reindeer, and such Ice
35 Age species as mammoths, mastodons,
and woolly rhinoceros. The presence of
fish and bird fossils points to the
possibility that Beringia could have
supported human communities.
The author's argument in the second paragraph would be most supported by the discovery of
a 20,000-year-old, undersized mammoth skeleton on the Kamchatka Peninsula
18,000-year-old cave drawings depicting humans and animals near the Mackenzie River
fossilized vegetation at Cape Olyutorsky that may have been part of the mammoth's diet
a 35,000-year-old reindeer skeleton near the Kolyma River
similar 20,000-year-old human skeletons on Unalaska Island and at Cape Olyutorsky
Last edited by pradeepkaushal9518 on Mon Jul 05, 2010 8:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
