Scientists Just Found GameChanging Footprints Of Ancient Humans

Scientists Just Found Game-Changing Footprints Of Ancient Humans

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When did the first humans come to the Americas? It’s widely accepted it was around 13,000 years ago — but new evidence shows it’s been much longer.

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Scientists Just Found GameChanging Footprints Of Ancient Humans

A fascinating set of human footprints were recently dated as being over 21,000 years old — completely upending previous evidence of when humans first came to the Americas. If there’s one thing that’s true about the science world, it’s that new things are discovered every single day. Whether it’s a Mars rover taking pictures of unique rocks or research suggesting dinosaurs didn’t actually die from volcanic eruptions, new evidence is regularly presented at an incredible pace.

One scientific topic that’s often a point of discussion is the existence of the first humans. Ancestors of humans likely traversed the Earth anywhere from 7 to 5 million years ago — these being apelike beings who regularly walked on two legs. The change from ape to a fully-evolved human is a complicated and messy process. Homo sapiens, the species of humans we belong to today, didn’t appear until 300,000 years ago.

Thanks to a new report in the aptly-named scientific journal Science, the timeline for when the first humans came over to the Americas has been turned on its head. After studying human footprints found in White Sands National Park in New Mexico, it’s believed that the footprints range between 21,000 and 23,000 years old. As the study explains, “These finds indicate the presence of humans in North America for approximately two millennia during the Last Glacial Maximum south of the migratory barrier created by the ice sheets to the north.”

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What These Footprints Reveal About The First Humans

Ancient human footprints are certainly impressive, but why are these ones so special? It all has to do with their believed age. Prior to this finding, it was widely accepted that the first humans arrived in the Americas around 13,000 years ago towards the end of the Last Glacial Maximum (aka the height of the last ice age). Ancient ‘Clovis’ tools were discovered around Clovis, New Mexico dating back to that point, and for decades, that’s been our best way of estimating when humans arrived on the continent. However, these footprints obviously upend that theory.

Not only do the age of the footprints indicate humans have been on the Americas much longer than expected, but the timing also reveals that they passed through incredibly harsh conditions to get here. Considering the Last Glacial Maximum took place around 26,000 – 20,000 years ago, this suggests the humans traveled to the Americas while much of the world was covered in glaciers and large sheets of ice. While the New Mexico area was a large wetland during this period, getting to the Americas during this time would have been no easy task.

This discovery is bound to be analyzed multiple times over to confirm its legitimacy, but assuming it is accurate (which seems to be the case), it’s a massive shift in the story of our ancestors. They arrived in New Mexico sooner than believed, likely lived there for around 2,000 years, and did so among mammoths, camels, and other creatures. It may not change who we are today, but as a piece of evidence that provides a better understanding of people that came before us, this is about as good as it gets.

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Link Source : https://screenrant.com/first-human-footprints-found-new-mexico-photos/

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