Even if the 10,000-year figure was accepted as approximate — and even that was already an extraordinary claim in 1962 — the implication was significant.

In 1962, the question of when the first humans reached North America was still organized around the Clovis paradigm: the idea that the first Americans were the makers of the distinctive fluted stone projectile points first found near Clovis, New Mexico, dated to roughly 11,500 years before present by conventional radiocarbon dating.

A human being in California approximately 10,000 years ago was not outside the Clovis window, but it was on its trailing edge, and the island context made it geographically unusual.

The bones went back into museum storage.