Prehistoric Hookworm and the Peopling of the Americas: Enhancing Theories Based on Paleoclimate Models and Pathogens

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Humans brought many things with them when they came to the Americas. This study focuses on hookworms and domesticated dogs to revise, constrain, or enhance theoretical models of when and how humans first came to the Americas. The hookworm life cycle is critically dependent upon the environmental conditions and proximity to suitable hosts. Its eggs leave the host’s body through feces, burrowing into the soil and spending several days before it can reinfect a host through barefoot contact with the infected ground. This life cycle creates climatic restrictions on where, when, and how people could reach the Americas while supporting the reinfection of the temperature-dependent parasites. In this study, we used paleoclimate models to look for land-based environments that would enable hookworm transmission into the Americas. Our results show that conditions in Beringia did not support an ongoing hookworm infection for moving through or living within it during currently accepted theoretical timeframes of migration and stasis.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36745.0