By RTL News ··Modified:
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Ancient footprints discovered in New Mexico suggest that humans settled in North and South America thousands of years earlier than previously thought. The prints are said to be around 23,000 years old.
The research into the discovery has been published in the journal Science. If confirmed by colleagues, it would be a stunning achievement: until now, most scientists agreed that humans first set foot in the Americas at least 16,000 years ago.
discussion
This discovery therefore means that there is a gap of thousands of years in knowledge about human history in North and South America.
The subject of the first man in America has long been discussed in science. It is also not the first time that humans have been thought to have existed earlier. But discoveries that may indicate that this has so far consisted mainly of features such as spearheads and other tools. The evidence will not be sufficient.
Footprints found during excavations in White Sands National Park in New Mexico will provide more reliable evidence. “The footprint can't move up or down in the soil, as the stumps do,” one researcher told the BBC.
Children and adolescents
An American team of geologists was able to determine the time from which they came from the layers above and below the prints. They were found to be between 21,000 and 23,000 years old.
According to the researchers, the footprints belong to young children and teenagers. It is not known exactly what they were doing, but they may have helped adults in a hunting ritual known to have been used by Native Americans.
