Independent age estimates resolve the controversy of ancient human footprints at White Sands-Reference-Cited by-同舟云学术

Independent age estimates resolve the controversy of ancient human footprints at White Sands

Published:2023-10-06 Issue:6666 Volume:382 Page:73-75
ISSN:0036-8075
Container-title:Science
language:en
Short-container-title:Science

Author:

Pigati Jeffrey S.¹^ORCID,Springer Kathleen B.¹^ORCID,Honke Jeffrey S.¹^ORCID,Wahl David²³^ORCID,Champagne Marie R.²^ORCID,Zimmerman Susan R. H.⁴^ORCID,Gray Harrison J.¹^ORCID,Santucci Vincent L.⁵^ORCID,Odess Daniel⁶^ORCID,Bustos David⁷^ORCID,Bennett Matthew R.⁸^ORCID

Affiliation:

1. US Geological Survey, Denver Federal Center, Denver, CO 80225, USA.

2. US Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.

3. Department of Geography, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.

4. Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA.

5. National Park Service, Geologic Resources Division, Washington, DC 20240, USA.

6. National Park Service, Cultural Resources Directorate, Washington, DC 20240, USA.

7. National Park Service, White Sands National Park, Holloman Air Force Base, NM 88330, USA.

8. Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, Bournemouth University, Poole BH12 5BB, UK.

Abstract

Human footprints at White Sands National Park, New Mexico, USA, reportedly date to between ~23,000 and 21,000 years ago according to radiocarbon dating of seeds from the aquatic plant Ruppia cirrhosa . These ages remain controversial because of potential old carbon reservoir effects that could compromise their accuracy. We present new calibrated 14 C ages of terrestrial pollen collected from the same stratigraphic horizons as those of the Ruppia seeds, along with optically stimulated luminescence ages of sediments from within the human footprint–bearing sequence, to evaluate the veracity of the seed ages. The results show that the chronologic framework originally established for the White Sands footprints is robust and reaffirm that humans were present in North America during the Last Glacial Maximum.

Publisher

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Subject

Multidisciplinary

Link

https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.adh5007

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