Scientists find oldest record of humans in the Americas

A survey conducted by archaeologists from several countries found evidence of the oldest human footprints ever recorded in the Americas.

According to the study, published In Science on Friday (24) the tracks were found in White Sands National Park, located in the state of New Mexico, USA.

Researchers believe the ancient footprints found in a lake in the park date from 21,000 to 23,000 years ago, which represents the oldest record of human occupation of the Americas ever discovered.

“Footprints have a way of connecting you to the past unlike anything else,” says geologist Matthew Bennett, of Bournemouth University, UK, in release Released by Science.

Almost 60 “ghost tracks” were found by researchers, who got this name because they constantly appear and disappear in the landscapes of a North American park.

According to the researchers, human footprints were next to those left by mammoths and sloths, and the age of these records was calculated by radiocarbon dating (carbon 14) of the aquatic plants found in the footprints.

In this method, scientists analyze the amount of carbon-14 in both human, animal and plant fossils. This number is decreasing over time, so researchers are able to get approximate data on when these organisms died.

For a long time, experts believed that the first humans arrived on American soil about 13,000 years ago, due to traces of stones found in North America.

However, recent discoveries of animal bones in Mexico, according to studies dating back 30,000 years, and stone tools in Texas, dating back 16,000 years, have already called into question the oldest studies of human presence in the Americas.

* Trainee in R7 Under the supervision of Pablo Marquez