Unexpected discovery could make story of very early humans 'more real,' scientists say




The timing of human arrival in North America has already been called into question by research on ancient footprints; however, a recent find may help to clarify the situation.

On the US Air Force Utah Test and Training Range, scientists discovered 88 fossilized prints that belonged to adults and children and probably date back 12,000 years. Only a second pair of Ice Age human footprints have been found in what is now the United States.

According to Kevin Hatala, a paleoanthropologist at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, footprints preserve a particular kind of data that most people cannot obtain from other kinds of archaeological or fossil records. He had no part in making the finding.

You can see how big these people were, Hatala said. "You can see where they were going. When many footpaths of footprints are found at one location, you may begin to guess how many individuals were there."

He said, "Were they probably heading in various directions or were they traveling together?"

According to Daron Duke, the study's primary investigator and an archaeologist with the Nevada-based Far Western Anthropological Research Group, the fossils can also shed light on contemporary communities.

It also links the artifacts to the locals' ancestors, he continued.

An accidental discovery

According to Duke and Tommy Urban, a research scientist at Cornell University in New York, the finding was made partly by accident.

Early in July, Duke and Urban were looking for signs of intentional prehistoric campfires, which were utilized by prehistoric people as a source of light and heat. Urban saw a fossilized footprint as they were driving around the Air Force installation and discussing what they looked like, so the men pulled over to look at it. They discovered many more in the vicinity after additional inspection.

They first doubted that people had left the imprints. But after examining the size, form, and length of the strides for several days, the researchers came to the conclusion that the footprints were made by barefoot human adults and children. The prints were exposed to the surface around the same time as artifacts found to be 12,300 years old, according to Duke. The archaeologists are still working to confirm the age of the footprints via radiocarbon dating, but they believe the tracks are 12,000 years old based on the previously dated sediment layer beneath them.

Furthermore, it has been at least 10,000 years since the region last had the freshwater marshes necessary to protect the footprints.

Scientists employed radiocarbon dating to determine that 61 footprints found at White Sands National Park in New Mexico in 2020 were between 21,000 and 23,000 years old. Many of the impressions belonged to teens and small children. This would indicate that, contrary to other theories, people first settled in North America during the Pleistocene epoch, sometimes known as the Ice Age.

In an email, Urban stated, "Once I concluded that (the Utah tracks) were barefoot human footsteps, it was quite thrilling." It was incredible to believe that we had just discovered a second White Sands because I had spent the past five years working on footprints there.

In the future, Duke added, the researchers must safeguard and identify the Utah prints' original owners as well as their precise time of origin.

a personal connection that is far away

According to University of Nevada-Reno archaeologist David Madsen, the discovery is intriguing for the area of archaeological study. He had no part in making the finding.

"The narrative of the very first people becomes more realistic now that we have this human component. There will be greater recovery since there is more financing available, more interest in it, "Added Madsen.

The most recent footprint find was made close to a site in northwest Utah where scientists discovered multiple human artifacts in 2015, including stone tools and the world's oldest tobacco usage evidence. The artifacts were created about the same period as the prints.

According to Duke, the close proximity of the sites and the likelihood that the artifacts date from the same time period provide archaeologists with more information about the potential residents of the region during the Ice Age.

Furthermore, studying more about the prints could help us comprehend the Indigenous people that live in the western US.

Indigenous residents from the region's 21 Indigenous villages are assisting the researchers in their analysis of the footprints.

Anya Kitterman, the cultural resource manager at the Air Force Base, stated in a news release that "Their viewpoint, presence, and understanding is vital." What actually unifies us is our shared human history and tales, and walking with the ancestors has been an incredible experience.

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