SCIENTIFIC EDUCATIONAL CENTER science idea

In the White Sands National Park in New Mexico, archaeologists have discovered ancient human footprints, the age of which ranges from 21,000 to 23,000 years. Thus, the footprints became the earliest evidence of human presence in America.

61 human footprints were found in ancient lake sediments. There were also traces of dogs and proboscis mammals. The researchers determined that the human footprints belonged to several people, mostly children and teenagers.

For a long time it was believed that the oldest inhabitants of North America were representatives of the archaeological culture of Clovis. About 16,000 years ago, their ancestors from Eastern Siberia moved to Beringia — on the territory of the isthmus that existed at that time on the site of the Bering Strait. Their further path was blocked by the Laurentian and Cordillera ice sheets, which covered the territory of modern Alaska. They managed to move south only about 14,800 years ago, when a passage between the ice sheets (known as the "Mackenzie Corridor") opened. After this migration, the archaeological culture of Clovis arose.

However, the growing number of archaeological finds of the pre-Clovis period forced scientists to think about the possibility of earlier settlement of America. The settlers who were in eastern Beringia could circumnavigate the Cordillera Glacier, following the Pacific coast of North America. To do this, they had to move along the coast on foot or by boat. But many arguments in favor of pre-Clovis settlement were disputed due to the ambiguity of the evidence: the stones that were taken for tools could be of natural origin, and the marks on the bones of animals that were considered to be traces of cutting could be formed by natural processes or obtained during excavations.

But this time, the researchers managed to get a radiocarbon date of their findings. Scientists from the National Park Service, the US Geological Survey, Bournemouth University, the University of Arizona and Cornell University calculated the age of the tracks by analyzing the seeds of the Ruppia plant (Ruppia cirrhosa) preserved in them.

The article was published in the journal Science

PHOTO: Ancient footprints found on the territory of New Mexico. The footprints were dated from 21,000 to 23,000 years old and
probably belonged to children and adolescents. © National Park Service, USGS and Bournemouth University
Source: polit.ru, sci-dig.ru