Researchers have found ancient human footprints in White Sand National Park in New Mexico, providing clear evidence of the earliest human activity in the Americas
Thomas Urban surveys mammoth footprints with magnetometers in White Sands National Park.
Footprints found in White Sand National Park, New Mexico.
Recently, scientists from Cornell University, Bournemouth University, the National Park Service, the National Geological Survey and the University of Arizona jointly published a paper in the journal Science that they found ancient human footprints in White Sand National Park in New Mexico, providing clear evidence of the earliest human activities in the Americas, allowing us to gain insight into life 23,000 years ago.
The footprints are formed in the soft mud on the edge of a shallow lake that is now part of a white sand salt flat. Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey used radiocarbon to date footprint layers. The results show that these footprints span a wide range of years, with the oldest dating back about 23,000 years, highly consistent with the last glacial cycle, which also makes them the oldest known human footprints in the Americas.
To investigate the footprint of White Sands National Park, the research team employed non-invasive geophysical techniques. "Nondestructive technology detection and imaging greatly expands our ability to study these footprints," said author Thomas Urban, a scientist in the College of Arts and Sciences. "Now that we have a unique window into life during the Pleistocene period in North America, this new study provides for the first time clear evidence that humans migrated to the Americas thousands of years earlier than most archaeologists believe." Previously, they believed that humans entered the Americas nearly 16,000 years ago, when the North American ice sheet melted and opened up migration routes.
The researchers say the footprints tell an interesting story about life at the time. In terms of size, footprints are mainly left by teenagers and children, and occasionally adults. Animal footprints including mammoths, giant sloths, wolves and birds have also appeared. Study leader Matthew Bennett of the University of Bournemouth said: "Footprints left in White Sands National Park show the interaction between adolescents, children and adults. Our ancestors had great hunting and survival skills, and they also gathered to play together. This research gives us a real understanding of early humans. ”
Sally Reynolds, co-author of the paper and the University of Bournemouth, said: "This is an important site, and the footprints we found here show that humans have interacted with extinct animals on this land. By determining the dates of these footprints, we can construct a larger landscape map. ”
Editor: Hua Hua Reviewer: Seamus Editor:Chen Zhihan
Journal Source: Science
Issue no. 0036-8075
Original link: https://phys.org/news/2021-09-earliest-evidence-human-americas.html
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