{The Land Bridge Worksheet}

Website #1

This theory was first proposed in ______ by ________________________ and has been widely accepted
since the 1930s. The Land Bridge Theory proposes that people migrated from Siberia to Alaska across
a land bridge that spanned the current day __________________. The first people to populate the
Americas were believed to have migrated across the Bering Land Bridge while tracking large _________
_____________ __________.

Over the last half-century, ________________ have largely concurred that the first Americans migrated
into North America from ________ more than fourteen to twenty thousand years ago via an overland
route across the ________ ________ ___________.

Genetic Trails:

In more than a dozen studies geneticists examined modern and ancient _______ samples from Native
Americans, looking for telltale genetic mutations or markers that define major human lineages known
as ______________.

Website #2

In 1590, the Spanish missionary Fray Joes de Acosta produced the first written record to suggest a land
bridge connecting Asia to ________ ___________. The question of how people migrated to the New World
was a topic widely debated among the thinkers and theorists of his time. Acosta rejected many of the
theories proposed by his contemporaries. Instead, he believed that _________ from Asia had crossed
into North America via a _______ __________ or __________ ________ located far to the north. He thought
the land bridge was still in existence during his lifetime.

Before the expedition, maps of Siberia sometimes contained a large landmass across the water from
the Chukchi Peninsula; however no definite account of travel through the strait had been recorded by
the early seventeen hundreds.

Based on maps you see on this website, draw your own representation of the Land Bridge. Include a
rough outline of Alaska/North America
and Siberia/Russia.
 Beginning in the early _________s, American scientists and naturalists started investigating
archeological sites on the east coast of the United States, slowly working their way towards the west
coast. The findings of these forebearers to modern ________________ suggested that people hadn't
_____________ in North America but had ____________ the continent from another place. However, from
where and how had yet to be discovered.

Website #3

How and when humans first came to the Americas has long been a topic of intense debate. Theories to
explain the __________ of the New Worldthe last great habitable landmass to be occupied by humans
focus on the Bering land bridge, or _____________, which emerged between Siberia and Alaska during
the last ______ ______. Rising from seas drained by the water-locking effect of spreading _____ _______,
Beringia is said to have given passage to the forebears of Native Americans anywhere between 40,000
and 15,000 years ago.

When conditions eventually warmed, and the glaciers began to melt, the migrants were up and
running again.

Or were they? Another debate centers on the migrants mode of transport. Some researchers believe
Beringia was flooded by rising sea levels before its inhabitants had the chance to cross into Alaska.
Challenging the idea that the land bridge was the only route in, they say groups must have ferried
themselves in boats at least part of the way.

What do you think? Did they use boats? Or did they use the icy land bridge that was supposedly there?

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Did you like this lesson? What kind of presentation do you want in the future?

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