Some Anthropologists believe this decline in
the megafauna was due to the intense hunting of these early people, while other
Anthropologists think the decline was due to viral infections spread by early
man. I favour the group of Anthropologists who think the decline in the megafauna
was due to a combination of viral infections and hunting.
The Bering Land Bridge was not the only way
prehistoric man arrived in the Americas. Early Vikings crossed the North
Atlantic in small ships like the one pictured on the right, by going from Norway
to Iceland, on to Greenland, and down the North American coast of Labrador to
Newfoundland as early as 1000 AD. At various times prior to 1492 they left
settlements in Labrador. The Americas were, however, already populated
by then. A fleet of
ships belonging to the Knights Templar landed on the coast of Massachusetts
where they began a settlement in 1308.