Footprints Place Humans In North America Thousands Of Years Before Previously Known - Forbes

Topline

Footprints discovered in White Sands National Park in New Mexico prove that humans lived in North America between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago, during the last ice age and thousands of years before scientists previously thought, a new study claims.

Key Facts

The footprints, which were confirmed in 2016 to be made by people, are some of the earliest evidence of human life on the continent, according to the paper, which was published in the journal Science.

Researchers determined the age of the footprints, which were found in a dried-up lake, by carbon dating plant seeds discovered below and above them.

The footprints suggest that humans could have arrived in North America before the last ice age, up to 30,000 years ago, Matthew Bennett, lead author of the study and a professor of environmental and geographic sciences at Bournemouth University in the U.K., told NBC News.

Key Background

The last ice age, referred to by scientists as the Last Glacial Maximum, occurred between 20,000 and 26,000 years ago. It’s hypothesized that humans traveled from Siberia to North America through the Pacific Coast or western Canada on a massive ice sheet. The confirmation of the footprints’ age solidifies other less concrete evidence, like artifacts, that previously found that placed humans on the continent, Bennett said. The new evidence joins several others that point to similar timelines. A 2020 study from the journal Nature on human-made stone tools found in a Mexican cave argued that they suggested that people could have been in the Americas over 30,000 years ago . A human dispersal study also published in Nature around the same time suggests humans were on the continent 26,000 years ago. The people who made the footprints in White Sands lived in the area for 2,000 years, and mingled with other species of the time, including mammoths and camels, the researchers said. Now a desert, the grounds used to be a vast wetland. 

Further Reading

Office In The Forest: Meet The Colombian Unraveling Fossil Plant Mysteries (Forbes) 

3D Printed Fossil Replicas Reveal Lifestyle Of Ancient Cephalopods (Forbes)

Adblock test (Why?)

Footprints Place Humans In North America Thousands Of Years Before Previously Known - Forbes
Read More