UArizona professor assists in the discovery of the oldest archeological site in America

TUCSON (KVOA) - A caller survey co-authored by a University of Arizona archaeologist finds the earliest grounds of quality enactment successful the Americas.

For decades, radical person debated erstwhile the archetypal radical arrived successful the Americas.

Now, footprints recovered astatine the White Sands National Park successful New Mexico supply penetration into life, implicit 23,000 years ago.

"Not lone is this the oldest archaeological site," said Vance Holliday, a prof successful the University of Arizona's School of Anthropology and Department of Geosciences and co-author of the report. "These are the oldest tracks, quality tracks, and you know, they're precise delicate, they conscionable don't sphere and that's the peculiarly antithetic facet of the site, radical usually find immoderate benignant of tools."

Before the footprints were found, researchers thought humans entered America overmuch later.

After the melting of the North American crystal sheets.

But, researchers are present capable to corroborate quality presence, corresponding to the past glacial cycle, known arsenic the Last Glacial Maximum.

"As acold arsenic we tin tell, bluish North America was wholly covered by glacial crystal from seashore to coast," said Holliday. "And that suggests that whoever was successful New Mexico 23,000 years agone were descendants of radical that had to travel overmuch earlier erstwhile they could get into the Americas erstwhile the crystal wasn't blocking the way. So there's different implications; erstwhile did that happen, and however did they get here."

Researchers recovered the tracks buried utilizing ground-penetrating radar which allowed them to look beneath the surface.

Judging by the size of the footprints, the tracks are believed to person been near chiefly by teenagers and younger children with the occasional adults.

The tracks of elephantine crushed sloths, camels, dire wolves, mammoths, and birds were each besides contiguous astatine the White Sands Site.

The researchers program to travel up connected the tracks soon and spot if determination are immoderate artifacts oregon tools nearby.