Ancient human footprints discovered in New Mexico are potentially even older than previously estimated, with a new study suggesting they date back more than 20,000 years. In 2021, American and British archaeologists initially dated prints found at White Sands National Park to around 21,000 to 23,000 years old, indicating the earliest evidence of human activity in the Americas. However, the findings were met with skepticism. A recent study published in the journal Science has now confirmed these estimates through radiocarbon dating, which analyzes decay up to 60,000 years old.
Footprints found in White Sands National Park in New Mexico date to 23,000 years ago, making them the first ‘unequivocal evidence’ of homo sapiens in the New World thousands of years before most estimates
The original researcher of the 2021 study, Dr. Jeff Pigati, a geologist at the US Geological Survey (USGS) in Denver, stated that when multiple dating techniques converge on the same age range, the resulting ages are highly reliable. The recent study serves as a corroborative exercise to independently evaluate the seed ages and build community confidence in the findings, according to Dr. Kathleen Springer, a co-author of the 2021 study and a researcher at USGS.
Humanity originated in Africa over 300,000 years ago and subsequently migrated across the world. Scientists suggest that Homo sapiens entered North America from Asia by crossing a land bridge that connected Siberia to Alaska. The footprints discovered at White Sands National Park, which exhibit a flat shape indicating barefoot individuals, provide insights into life during the Upper Paleolithic Era starting approximately 40,000 years ago.
Earlier evidence had indicated human occupation of North America around 16,000 years ago, but the new findings push back that timeline. According to Dr. Matthew Bennett, a professor at Bournemouth University and co-author of the study, indigenous peoples likely inhabited the region earlier than previously thought, before the migration route was closed during the last glacial maximum. White Sands is just one location on the map, and further research is needed to determine the specific routes and methods of early human settlement in the Americas.
The footprints at White Sands include tracks mainly left by teenagers and young children, along with occasional prints from adults, mammoths, giant ground sloths, and dire wolves. Dr. Bennett described the footprints as a window into the interactions between various age groups, including teenagers, younger children, and adults. Additionally, earlier footprints discovered in the same region suggested that young humans purposefully stepped in the tracks of giant ground sloths, indicating a form of hunting during that time.
Other archaeological discoveries have challenged previous assumptions about early human habitation of the Americas. For instance, stone tools found in a Mexican cave known as Chiquihuite revealed evidence of human occupation dating back 27,000 years. In 2018, “unique” stone tools discovered northwest of Austin, Texas, suggested human presence as far back as 20,000 years ago. The oldest known human footprints in the Americas, dating back 15,600 years, were found in Chile in 2019.
White Sands National Park, designated a megatrack site, boasts the world’s largest collection of fossilized footprints from the Pleistocene era, spanning from 2.58 million to 11,700 years ago.
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