Jocelyn Solis-Moreira (she/her) is a science contributor at Popular Science. She covers a range of topics, including neuroscience, climate change, mental health, and infectious diseases. When Jocelyn’s done writing for the day, you’ll find her flying through the air in an aerial studio.
In 2006, a cluster of mysterious dark spots on a lakebed of White Sands National Park in New Mexico caught the attention of archaeologists. The shapes stroked their curiosity until they eventually excavated the site three years later. Waiting for them was one of the rarest and soon-to-be controversial discoveries in history—
The finding initially received some pushback. When the results were first revealed in 2021, concerned archaeologists wrote comments and papers challenging the results, citing the. More specifically, they criticized the study method and the decision to use radiocarbon dating on the seeds of an aquatic plant that was excavated from the same site.
The COVID pandemic delayed many of the follow-up experiments Pigati and Springer wanted to complete when investigating the site in 2020. Three years later, they finally did with two new methods that corroborate their original estimate of the footprints’ age: radiocarbon dating of pollen and luminescence dating.
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Further evidence points to footprints in New Mexico being the oldest sign of humans in AmericasNew research shows that fossil footprints discovered at the edge of an ancient lakebed in New Mexico's White Sands National Park date back to between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago. Previously, archaeologists thought human ancestors arrived about 15,000 years ago. The research was published Thursday in the journal Science. Scientists analyzed conifer pollen and quartz grains found at the site to reach date estimates. Earlier research that analyzed seeds of aquatic plants found at the site also produced similar date estimates. Ancient humans at White Sands lived alongside giant ground sloths, bison and other megafauna.
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Further evidence points to footprints in New Mexico being the oldest sign of humans in AmericasNew research shows that fossil footprints discovered at the edge of an ancient lakebed in New Mexico's White Sands National Park date back to between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago
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Further evidence points to footprints in New Mexico being the oldest sign of humans in AmericasNew research shows that fossil footprints discovered at the edge of an ancient lakebed in New Mexico's White Sands National Park date back to between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago.
Read more »