Oldest human footprints in North America found - Indian Country Today
By: Indian Country Today
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Based on the size of the footprints, researchers believe that at least some were made by children and teenagers Author: The Associated Press
This undated photo made available by the National Park Service in September 2021 shows fossilized human fossilized footprints at the White Sands National Park in New Mexico. (Photo courtesy of National Park Service)
Based on the size of the footprints, researchers believe that at least some were made by children and teenagers
Christina Larson
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Fossilized footprints discovered in New Mexico indicate that early humans were walking across North America around 23,000 years ago, researchers reported Thursday.
The first footprints were found in a dry lake bed in White Sands National Park in 2009. Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey recently analyzed seeds stuck in the footprints to determine their approximate age, ranging from around 22,800 and 21,130 years ago.
Most scientists believe ancient migration came by way of a now-submerged land bridge that connected Asia to Alaska. Based on various evidence — including stone tools, fossil bones and genetic analysis — other researchers have offered a range of possible dates for human arrival in the Americas, from 13,000 to 26,000 years ago or more.
The current study provides a more solid baseline for when humans definitely were in North America, although they could have arrived even earlier, the authors say. Fossil footprints are more indisputable and direct evidence than "cultural artifacts, modified bones, or other more conventional fossils," they wrote in the journal Science, which published the study Thursday.
"What we present here is evidence of a firm time and location," they said.
Based on the size of the footprints, researchers believe that at least some were made by children and teenagers who lived during the last ice age.
David Bustos, the park's resource program manager, spotted the first footprints in ancient wetlands in 2009. He and others found more in the park over the years.
"We knew they were old, but we had no way to date the prints before we discovered some with (seeds) on top," he said Thursday.
Made of fine silt and clay, the footprints are fragile, so the researchers had to work quickly to gather samples, Bustos said.
"The only way we can save them is to record them — to take a lot of photos and make 3D models," he said.
Earlier excavations in White Sands National Park have uncovered fossilized tracks left by a saber-toothed cat, dire wolf, Columbian mammoth and other ice age animals.
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Many new discoveries push the date of the first people arrivals further back.
I like the idea of exploring the terrain in the desert southwest and seeing the same unchanged vistas seen by humans over 1000+ years ago.
The southwest has amazing vistas that was seen by our ancestor's thousands of years ago.
"NO POLITICS"
Awww, and I wanted to say somethng about migrants....
Nope
Things don't change, even that far back, the kids loved playing in the mud.
The same thought crossed my mind. No, some things never change.
Or maybe, the more things change, the more they stay the same?
Quite the interesting article Kav. Thanks for posting it.
As so many of our Elders have told us - we've always been here.
Yes, the grandfathers know.
Morning 1st...as the Kooris say here...
Always was always will be...
When they talk of being on country and the connection to the land..
Ps..did you get your new kitty??
This is a great story.
Try to imagine what they were thinking about and doing when those footprints were created.
Mind-boggling.
20,000 plus years ago thinking what they were thinking at the time, as you said Mind-boggling.
What a discovery! Powerful dating evidence, too; twice the age of Clovis.
23,000 years ago was during the during the last glacial maximum. This should add to the arrival-by-boat theory. It had to be boats, right? More people came later through the ice-free corridor, but the earliest had to come by boats.
Amazing!
There is quite a bit of proof that there was what is called ''kelp highway''.
What a great discovery! Further proof that Indians have been the original people.