Fossilized Footprints dating to ~23k years ago, White Sands, NM

[Astronuc]

https://www.nps.gov/whsa/learn/nature/fossilized-footprints.htm

How long have humans been living in the Tularosa Basin? The latest research from White Sands confirms for the first time that humans have been living in North America for at least 23,000 years - many thousands of years older than previously thought. This research also confirms that people were living with the ice age megafauna much longer than previously known.

The new dates of the human presence were discovered by digging a trench in the gypsum soil on the park's western playa. Human footprints were found at different depths below the surface. Above and below these nearly discovered human footprints were ancient grass seeds (Ruppia cirrhosa). These seeds were analyzed using radiocarbon dating, and calibrated dates of 22,860 (∓320) and 21,130 (∓250) years ago were revealed.

https://phys.org/news/2021-09-fossil-footprints-humans-populated-americas.html

Our discovery may also reopen speculation about other archaeological sites in the Americas. One of them is Chiquihuite Cave in Mexico. Archaeologists recently claimed that evidence from this cave suggests humans occupied the Americas around 30,000 years ago—7,000 years before people left the White Sands footprints.

But the Chiquihuite Cave findings are disputed by some, as stone tools can be difficult to interpret and tool-like stones can form via natural processes. Stone tools can also move between layers of sediment and rock. Fossil footprints can't. They are fixed on a bedding plane, and so provide more reliable evidence of exactly when humans left them.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abg7586 (subscription needed for full article)

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02597-1

Edit/update: I realized yesterday evening that the time period predates the Bonneville and Missoula floods. These people, or rather their descendents, would have witnessed dramatic changes.
https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/70217223

 

[Oldman too]

Edit/update: I realized yesterday evening that the time period predates the Bonneville and Missoula floods. These people, or rather their descendents, would have witnessed dramatic changes.
https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/70217223

That area has a lot of surprises even yet.
https://www.science.org/content/article/ancient-human-playground-found-inside-sloth-footprints
https://www.newscientist.com/articl...children-splashed-in-puddles-11500-years-ago/

 

[anorlunda]

Edit/update: I realized yesterday evening that the time period predates the Bonneville and Missoula floods. These people, or rather their descendents, would have witnessed dramatic changes.

It even predates the most recent ice age that gave cause to those floods.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_age#Recent_glacial_and_interglacial_phases
During the most recent North American glaciation, during the latter part of the Last Glacial Maximum (26,000 to 13,300 years ago), ice sheets extended to about 45th parallel north. These sheets were 3 to 4 kilometres (1.9 to 2.5 mi) thick.

And maybe/maybe not predates the Bering Sea Land Bridge which enters into some theories about how early humans got here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beringia
The last glacial period, commonly referred to as the "Ice Age", spanned 125,000[24]–14,500 YBP[25] and was the most recent glacial period within the current ice age, which occurred during the last years of the Pleistocene era.[24] The Ice Age reached its peak during the Last Glacial Maximum, when ice sheets began advancing from 33,000 YBP and reached their maximum limits 26,500 YBP. Deglaciation commenced in the Northern Hemisphere approximately 19,000 YBP and in Antarctica approximately 14,500 years YBP, which is consistent with evidence that glacial meltwater was the primary source for an abrupt rise in sea level 14,500 YBP[25] and the bridge was finally inundated around 11,000 YBP.[12] The fossil evidence from many continents points to the extinction of large animals, termed Pleistocene megafauna, near the end of the last glaciation.

 

[DrDu]

Interesting, just some days ago I read this article
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0264092
which puts serious doubts on earlier arrival in the americas.

 

[anorlunda]

Interesting, just some days ago I read this article
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0264092
which puts serious doubts on earlier arrival in the americas.

Evidence triumphs over theory. That's what science is all about.

 

[Oldman too]

Interesting, just some days ago I read this article

Fascinating, thanks for posting this. I wouldn't be surprised if future research doesn't conclude multiple time frames as well as locations and transportation methods already considered. For example tracing the "sea route" along the shoreline is very problematic due to sea level rise, complicated by "unloading/rebound" of the mentioned ice sheets as they melted. It's also possible, but unlikely that some of the S. Pacific peoples got lucky and pulled off a trans-pacific voyage at some point, they were amazing navigators as well as very able sailors.

I'm working on comparing the estimated arrival dates in the paper you posted with research done in central as well as south america. It's very possible that your paper is accurate in the context of the areas studied, I'm just not sure if they are taking other routes besides the Beringian model into account.

Evidence triumphs over theory. That's what science is all about.

That should be written in stone.

 

[Oldman too]

Hello @DrDu
After much reading and consideration, it appears that we are dealing with theoretical anthropology from either point of view.

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0264092 Seems based primarily on the stratigraphic interpretations. While very useful, it seems that method was somewhat selectively applied, ignoring criteria that didn't fit their particular model. I'm not saying it was an out and out cherry picked paper, it's just that one has to invalidate the entire Pacific coast migration model in order to make the Ice free corridor work (as the earliest settlement route). Personally, I believe it's most likely that both routes were popular conduits for travel, it's also likely that the Beringian Standstill Hypothesis wasn't considered.

https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/bering-land-bridge-first-americans/

We could obviously swap links all day long to various theories, all of which have some but not total credibility. Without a substantial breakthrough, which I haven't found so far, the
debate is just that, a debate without a winner. It's all a bunch of mental masturbation without more evidence.

Fascinating subject, just very ambiguous history, it's worth keeping an eye on though.

 

[Oldman too]

Evidence triumphs over theory. That's what science is all about.

An excellent example of that statement.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0271971