What 1.5 km of ancient footprints were told to scientists: a mysterious find in the USA

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

More than 10,000 years ago, a girl (or maybe a young boy) and a baby set off on a tedious journey through the area where the White Sands National Park in New Mexico is now located. They stopped, and the man briefly lowered the child to the ground to rest, after which they continued on their way again. A few hours later the traveler was already walking back, but without a child. Where did the ancient people go and what happened? Scientists are trying to unravel this mystery of the longest line of ancient footprints.

One and a half kilometers long find

As described in a new study published in Quaternary Science Reviews, the track consists of over 400 human footprints (they stretch for nearly a mile), including several tiny baby tracks.

“This is the longest line of human prints from this period ever found. I've never seen anything like it! Says Kevin Hatala of Chatham University, an evolutionary biologist who was not part of the research team.

The footprints were discovered through careful observation by Park Resource Program Manager David Bustos. Shallow fossil prints are not easy to spot - they can only be seen when there are slight changes in moisture that cause subtle changes in surface color.

In 2016, Bustos spoke about the tracks to a number of specialists, including the first author of the new study, Matthew Bennett, a geologist at the University of Bournemouth in England. Since then, Bennett and his colleagues have traveled to White Sands on numerous occasions, capturing many prints in various parts of the park, both human and animal.

The footprints in this article are embedded in fine sand, and a thin crust of salt is all that keeps them in shape.

The team has painstakingly excavated 140 footprints so far, using a brush to reveal subtle structures. However, such fragile forms quickly disintegrate after discovery, so scientists recorded each print as a series of photographs to build a three-dimensional model - a technique known as 3D photogrammetry. By analyzing the shape, structure, and distribution of the tracks, scientists were able to reconstruct a picture of events.

What happened during the ancient walk?

The ground was muddy and slippery, it was raining, its jets, apparently, lashed the travelers in the face. The primary “creator” of the track could be either a girl over 12 years old, or, possibly, a young man (the size of the tracks is small). At the same time, at least three points of the way to the "main" tracks are added with prints of tiny feet, indicating a child less than three years old.

Judging by the distance between the tracks, the man was moving at a speed of about 3.8 miles per hour. While not jogging, it is still quite fast paced considering the mud underfoot and the heavy weight that had to be carried. The traveler was in a hurry. In some places, the steps were unusually long, as if he was stepping over or jumping over an obstacle.

“It could have been puddles or wet excrement from a mammoth,” says study author Sally Reynolds, a paleontologist at the University of Bournemouth.

The child, meanwhile, was carried only one way. On the way north, the left footprints are slightly deeper, which could be the result of the baby being carried on the left hip. Among the tracks that run north are those with toes sliding over muddy surfaces and one foot dragging along (the print looks like a banana). But when moving in the opposite direction, the difference in the size of the tracks of both legs is not traced, and slippage occurs much less often, which indicates that the walker was no longer burdened with anything. All these facts indicate one thing: on the way to the north, a man carried a child, and went back without him.

The very fact that the baby was carried is not surprising and, as scientists note, it only shows that all animals at all times carried their babies on themselves, and this is how ancient people did it, and this practice will be at all times. Yes, prehistoric people were just like us.

Moving along the path of ancient people, in one place a team of scientists discovered the footprints of a mammoth and a giant sloth, which crossed the human tracks after the travelers passed by. The mammoth, apparently, was not particularly worried about the fact that there could be people nearby, but the giant sloth, apparently, paid attention to this: judging by the prints, just in the place where the man and the child passed, he stopped and stood on two legs - perhaps to sniff, similar to how modern bears behave.

“It gives us an idea of the people in their ancient ecosystem and indicates the sloth's obvious awareness of the presence of people nearby,” says Sally Reynolds. “You can't get that kind of information from your bones. Fossil footprints are a real gift for scientists.

Animal tracks helped the team determine the time interval: after traveling to the north, a mammoth and a giant sloth stepped over a fresh human track, while when moving south, tracks followed the surface of animal tracks. This overlay shows that all prints were applied within a few hours - before the dirt was completely dry. The presence of these now extinct creatures near humans suggests that the ancient adventure took place at least 10,000 years ago.

Much in this ancient history remains a mystery. Where did the person carry the child? To whom did he give it and for what reason did he even have to part with the baby?

- The ancient traveler, apparently, knew the route well. The man walked without fuss, knowing for sure that he would not get lost, - says Reynolds, - Perhaps he was following the path to the camp of another family or hunting group.

However, the final destination of the trip, alas, remains unknown, as the prints are sent to the place where the White Sands missile base is now located, and the researchers, of course, have no access to its territory.

The research team continues its work in White Sands National Park, hoping to reconstruct the chain of events in more detail.

There are still many mysteries left on Earth to be solved by archaeologists. Fortunately, sometimes they succeed, and then we get a lot of useful information. We recommend reading about what hides the "Big void" in the Great Pyramid of CheopsThanks to the Scan Pyramid Project, historians have managed to lift the veil of this mystery.