Fossilized footprints show humans in North America thousands of years before we thought
New research conducted at White Sands National Park in New Mexico has revealed that human life existed in North America thousands of years before scientists previously thought.
The fossilized human footprints were buried in layers of gypsum soil on a large playa in the national park, according to a news release from the National Park Service. The U.S. Geological Survey analyzed and radiocarbon-dated seeds that were embedded in the footprints, confirming their age.
The new findings not only confirm that human life was present in North America around 21,000 to 23,000 years ago — earlier than scientists had previously thought — but also extend the range for the coexistence of humans and Pleistocene Epoch megafauna like mammoths, the release said.
“It’s the earliest unequivocal evidence for humans in the Americas,” Matthew Bennett, lead author of the study and a professor of environmental and geographical sciences at Bournemouth University, told NBC News.
The findings were detailed in the journal Science, where researchers noted that ”questions remain about when and how people migrated, where they originated, and how their arrival affected the established fauna and landscape.”
Previously discovered traces of human habitation in North America, like stone tools or other artifacts, had been disputed because they relied on bits of evidence that might have shifted around from their original stratigraphic layers over time.
A footprint, on the other hand, “is a really good, unequivocal data point,” according to Bennett, according to NBC News.
“That’s the importance of this site — we know they were there,” Bennett told NBC News.
Most of the footprints in the study likely come from teenagers or children, according to the National Park Service. This might be because of the division of labor at the time — adults may have focused on skilled tasks and left younger people to handle “fetching and carrying.” Children who accompanied teenagers would have left more footprints behind, leaving more traces in the fossil record, the study said.
Prior to these findings, scientists estimated that the first humans arrived in North America about 16,000 to 18,000 years ago.
“This study illustrates the process of science — new evidence can shift long-held paradigms,” USGS acting Rocky Mountain Regional Director Allison Shipp said in the release.
See how your state has changed over 750 million years with interactive map of Earth
What is this? ‘Mystery artifact’ found at African-American historic site in Boston
This Texas-based company wants to revive the extinct woolly mammoth. Well, sorta
