Paleo-Indian hunters ventured high into the Andes Mountains as early as 12,800 years ago, as much as two thousand years sooner than previously thought.

The finding, reported Thursday in the journal Science, suggests that South America's first inhabitants raced across the continent rather than spreading slowly to its remotest corners.

"It was a land rush, a free-for-all," said study author Kurt Rademaker, an archaeologist at the University of Tubingen in Germany. "People were much more capable and adaptable than we ever thought."