Teenagers and their footprints!⁣👣⁣⁣ ⁣ Well, we always say, “Leave nothing but footprints!” New scientific research conducted at New Mexico’s White Sands National Park has uncovered the oldest known human footprints in North America. Based on stature and walking speed, it appears that most of the footprints in this study come from teenagers and children. The discovery reveals evidence of human occupation in the Tularosa Basin beginning at least 23,000 years ago, thousands of years earlier than previously thought.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ The fossilized human footprints were buried in multiple layers of gypsum soil on a large playa. Seeds embedded in the footprints were radiocarbon dated and analyzed by the U.S. Geological Survey to establish age. The research dramatically extends the range for the coexistence of humans and Pleistocene (ice age) megafauna and confirms that humans were present in North America before the major glacial advances at the height of the last ice age closed migration routes from ...