Ancient Mystery Unearthed: The Americas’ Oldest Human Footprint Challenges History Books
Here’s a 15,600-year-old footprint from Chile doing the ultimate mic drop on our understanding of human history in South America — it’s rewriting the timeline by beating the previous record by a whole millennium. Seriously, who knew that ancient toes left behind such a bold statement? For years, scientists believed humans only arrived after the Ice Age thawed out, but this lone print is flexing with undeniable proof that our ancestors were already making tracks—and probably hunting mastodons—way before we thought. The questions now: Who exactly left that mark? And what stories could this single footprint tell if it could talk? Buckle up, because this isn’t just a footnote in history—it’s a giant, muddy exclamation point. LEARN MORE
At 15,600 years old, this print predates the previous oldest evidence of humans in South America by 1,000 years.
Karen Moreno/PLOS OneThe original sedimentary structure of the print. The star marks a lump of sediment.
While previous evidence had long established that the earliest arrival of human beings in South America occurred after the Ice Age, a human footprint believed to be 15,600 years old discovered in Chile is forcing the scientific community to reassess.
According to Reuters, if Universidad Austral paleontologist Karen Moreno and her study are correct, this is the oldest human footprint ever found on the continent. Published in the journal PLOS One, Moreno’s study provides credible evidence for her claims, which have significant ramifications.
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