The Messenger Tech
By Adam Kovak
October 5, 2023
Anew analysis of tiny specks of pollen from long-dead conifer trees, seeds and sets of ancient footprints in New Mexico have revealed that humans arrived in North America much earlier than scientists previously thought.
If the findings hold, then they are the oldest footprints ever discovered in the U.S.
Because the footprints themselves can’t be carbon dated, the researchers behind the new study looked at seeds from aquatic plants found in the same layer of sediment — essentially a proxy dating tool. Carbon dating reveals that the seeds fell between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago — thousands of years earlier than previous estimates had supposed.