New Analysis on Footprints Found in White Sands Poses to Change Everything Experts Know About Human Culture in Americas

The saga of the oldest footprints in North America has taken another interesting turn. For a long time, there has been debate regarding the prints spotted in White Sands, according to IFL Science. Researchers were divided on whether the prints were truly 20,000 years old, as suggested by initial examination. However, a new analysis confirms this assertion, which has also been published in detail in the journal Science Advances. These footprints were found embedded in a layer of sediment, which supposedly once was the bed of an ancient stream. These footprints belonged to some wanderers who arrived in present-day Mexico around 23,000 years ago, per researchers.

The footprints were found back in 2019 at White Sands National Park in New Mexico, according to Discover Magazine. At that time, experts examined the pollen and seeds in the sediment layer to determine the age of the prints. The results indicated that the footprints were made sometime between 23,000 years and 21,000 years ago. This finding surprised experts as this made the footprints 10,000 years older than the earliest Clovis remains found in the Americas, which were long believed to be the first group of humans to enter the region.

Not everyone was convinced by the results, as many anthropologists questioned the validity of the method used for the investigation. These anthropologists claimed that materials like pollen and seeds were not reliable. The issue with the dating method was in a 2022 rebuttal. Seeds used for radiocarbon dating belonged to ditch grass (Ruppia cirrhosa), a water plant. The rebuttal argued that water plants receive their carbon from water underneath them, so there is a likelihood that the water is older than the plant that it is hosting. It could skew the results and indicate that the seeds were older than their actual age. 

This study reexamined the footprints and used a different material for radiocarbon dating, according to Live Science. Vance Holliday, a professor emeritus in the School of Anthropology and Department of Geosciences at the University of Arizona, and his team investigated several mud cores from the layer of footprints to get their accurate age, per EurekAlert. Results indicated that the trackways were made between 20,700 and 22,400 years ago. It aligned with the previous results provided by the seeds and pollen. 

To date, around 55 samples of seeds, pollens, and mud cores from the footprint layer have been radiocarbon-dated by experts. All of them have returned results in the same range, supporting the assertion of the footprint being 21,000- to 23,000-year-old. "You get to the point where it's really hard to explain all this away," Holliday shared. "As I say in the paper, it would be serendipity in the extreme to have all these dates giving you a consistent picture that's in error." However, some experts are still in disbelief about the results and want further examinations. 

The assertion poses a challenge to everything people understand about the arrival of humans in North America, according to Discovery. The trajectory that had been traced from the arrival of Clovis culture straightaway goes up for debate. "It's a strange feeling when you go out there and look at the footprints and see them in person. You realize that it basically contradicts everything that you've been taught about the peopling of North America," said Jason Windingstad, a doctoral candidate in environmental science. Holliday believes that the most obvious explanation is that the footprints belonged to hunter-gatherers who indeed arrived in the region but left before making any settlements.