Mario Pino Quivira is a

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althoug ...

specialized in geoarchaeology and sedimentology that has been involved in several studies of early human settlements in

Southern Chile Southern Chile is an informal geographic term for any place south of the capital city, Santiago, or south of Biobío River, the mouth of which is Concepción, about {{convert, 200, mi, km, sigfig=1, order=flip south of Santiago. Generally cities ...

. After

Tom Dillehay Tom Dillehay is an American anthropologist who is the Rebecca Webb Wilson University Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Religion, and Culture and Professor of Anthropology at Vanderbilt University. In addition to Vanderbilt, Dillehay has tau ...

's excavation of

Monte Verde Monte Verde is an archaeological site in the Llanquihue Province in southern Chile, located near Puerto Montt, Southern Chile, which has been dated to as early as 18,500 cal BP (16,500 BC). Previously, the widely accepted date for early occu ...

near Puerto Montt, where human remains estimated to be about 12,800 years old have been found, challenging the

Clovis theory The Clovis culture is a prehistoric Paleoamerican culture, named for distinct stone and bone tools found in close association with Pleistocene fauna, particularly two mammoths, at Blackwater Locality No. 1 near Clovis, New Mexico, in 1936 ...

of the first human arrival in the Americas, Pino controversially claimed the site was 33,000 years old. Other studied sites includes the

Chan-Chan Chan-Chan is an archaeological site and beach on the coast of the commune of Mehuín in Zona Sur, southern Chile. Chan-Chan is known to have been inhabited by hunter-gatherers during two periods of the Archaic period in the Americas, Middle Archai ...

settlement near

Mehuín Mehuín is a Chilean town and harbour, located on the shores of the Pacific Ocean at the mouth of Lingue River. Administratively it belongs to the San José de la Mariquina commune in Valdivia Province of Los Ríos Region. The town is located a ...

and the Gomphotherium of Osorno.

References

People from Valdivia Austral University of Chile faculty 21st-century Chilean geologists Chilean archaeologists Living people Sedimentologists Members of the Chilean Academy of Sciences Year of birth missing (living people) Geoarchaeologists 20th-century Chilean geologists {{geologist-stub