An intriguing new study has just been published in the journal Science in which a team of anthropologists suggest that the first humans to have reached the Americas did so by way of a special kelp highway. The previous and conventionally held belief was that the Clovis people were the first settlers of the Americas and arrived on the continent by way of the Bering land bridge around 13,500 years ago.

These Clovis settlers were theorized to have used the land bridge then covering the Bering Strait at a time when sea levels would have been much lower than they are currently. Surviving relics of their once flourishing culture include stone tools which were discovered in 1932 in New Mexico, and DNA tests run on the remains of Anzick-1, a male infant believed to be part of the Clovis family, have shown him to be related to modern day Native Americans, according to Seeker.

During the 1980s the notion that the Clovis people were the earliest settlers to travel to the Americas began to disintegrate as archaeologists found fresh new evidence showing that humans had been settling in the Americas long before 13,500 years ago. In fact, evidence suggests that there were once civilizations on both the North and South American coasts which date back from 14,000 to 18,000 years ago, as Phys.Org report, and the remains of a civilization have also been found in the interior of North America dating back to approximately 16,000 years ago.

Archaeological evidence of human activity has been discovered in Oregon that dates back to 14,300 years ago and before the Clovis culture. [Image by Jeff Barnard/AP Images]

Given so much new evidence showing that there were humans in the Americas long before the Clovis people were thought to have crossed the Bering land bridge, the vast majority of anthropologists are now of the belief that the first settlers would have arrived on the continent via boat, rather than on foot. It is also thought that these first humans would have followed the coasts using their boats rather than walking through the interior.

The authors of this newly published Science study show that these early humans arriving in the Americas may have made use of what they call a kelp highway through kelp forests that would have once been thriving offshore. Because of the abundance of this kelp, anthropologists believe that the area would have been teeming with sea creatures which would have helped these hungry travelers to have survived in their new environment.

A “kelp highway” may be responsible for the arrival of the First Americans: https://t.co/qHOPijfr4K @GemmaTarlach pic.twitter.com/9wrdbMmnCm — Discover Magazine (@DiscoverMag) November 3, 2017

Anthropologists also note in their new study that there has been very little research to date conducted of early human settlers of the Americas offshore. This area is one which needs to be be studied further, particularly as these people would have been traveling and residing in what is now covered by water as ocean levels have risen significantly since the first settlers reached the Americas.

While there are still many questions left to be answered about the first settlers of the Americas, anthropologists will now be able to further study the idea of a kelp highway which may have allowed the first humans to reach the New World.

[Featured Image by Matt Volz/AP Images]