Yesterday's poop doesn't usually turn into today's treasure, but in archaeology, it's quite possible. As a matter of fact, human solid waste from thousands of years ago has given way to one of the greatest discoveries in human natural history yet.

Unearthed in Oregon's Paisley dig sites are fossilized human excrement dated to some 14,300 years ago. In the dried-up matter, scientists were able to extract the oldest human DNA ever collected.

"The Paisley Cave material represents, to the best of my knowledge, the oldest human DNA obtained from the Americas,” said Eske Willerslev, director of the Centre for Ancient Genetics at Denmark’s University of Copenhagen. “Other pre-Clovis sites have been claimed, but no human DNA has been obtained, mostly because no human organic material had been recovered."

In the anthropology community, human waste which has dried up, solidified, and has been fossilized is referred to as coprolites. In the case of the Paisley dig, 14 samples of coprolites were examined initially using a method called multiplex polymerase chain reaction. This makes it possible for DNA strands to be amplified, making it possible to identify and distinguish it from that of another animal's.

The identity and lineage of the people whose droppings were found in the Paisley site are still a mystery, though scientists are certain that they existed ahead of Clovis culture native Americans who inhabited the area some 12,900 to 13,200 years ago. The Clovis, as of now, hold the distinction of being the first people in North America, but that may change very soon.

"If our DNA evidence and radiocarbon dating hold up on additional coprolites that are now undergoing testing at multiple labs, then we have broken the Clovis sound barrier, if you will,” said senior archaeologist Dennis Jenkins. “If you are looking for the first people in North America, you are going to have to step back more than 1,000 years beyond Clovis to find them."