My article was an interesting discovery made by a group of researchers that could rewrite textbooks. My article “‘Ghost tracks’ suggest people came to the Americas earlier than once thought” by Freda Kreier, talks about the recent discovery of footprints in White Sands National Park in New Mexico that date further back than the people that came to America by the Bering land bridge. Geoscientist Matthew Bennett and his colleagues report that these footprints date back to 23,000 to 21,000 years ago, during the peak of the last ice age. Furthermore, there have been recent findings of animal bones and stone tools that date back up to 30,000 years ago to possibly add as evidence to these footprints. Bennett tells us that he and his colleagues used “…several dating methods such as radiocarbon dating of the aquatic plants embedded in and between the footprints.” The article goes on to tell us that some archeologists are not totally convinced that this discovery is legit. They counter by saying, “…the researchers should use other validation techniques to check the dates before ‘breaking out the champagne.’” One archeologist by the name of Loren Davis, says if the dates are validated, then this discovery will provide evidence that humans can survive the harshest weather for a long period of time.
Compared to the journal, Kreier mentions the basic and most important information that the journal mentions. The journal’s abstract mentions almost everything Kreier mentions but the last sentence. Bennett talks about how this discovery adds evidence “to the antiquity of human colonization of the Americas and providing a temporal range extension for the coexistence of early inhabitants and Pleistocene megafauna.” What I find interesting about this statement is that this is a crucial piece of information that can be expanded upon in Kreier’s article. I find it interesting that this could possibly shape history and Kreier decides not to include this because archeologists believe this discovery is not valid. On another note, Bennett digs deep to make sure that his and his colleagues’ findings are not in vain. He mentions his use of radiocarbon dating, which is mentioned in Kreier’s article, to solidify the ‘ghost prints’ into human feet. On another note, Kreier mentions this in her article but does not go into detail. Overall, Kreier’s article is very interesting, but she puts out the important information with little to none of what Bennett was trying to portray.
CITATIONS
Bennett et al. Evidence of humans in North America during the last Glacial Maximum. Science. Vol. 373, September 24, 2021, p. 1528. doi: 10.1126/science.abg7586.
