While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
• Archaeologist Jon Erlandson and colleagues argue that humans first arrived in the Americas by sea.
• They propose that humans traveled between Pacific Ocean islands and coastlines from northeast Asia to the Americas.
• Many of these islands and coastal zones were later submerged as glaciers melted and sea levels rose.
• The researchers think that “a coastal route, including kelp forests and estuaries, would have provided a rich mix of marine, estuarine, riverine, and terrestrial resources” such as seaweeds, fish, and birds.
• This proposed scenario is known as the kelp highway hypothesis.