Evidence suggests the Americas were reached much earlier than previously thought

Scientists have announced that they have confirmed evidence showing that the migration to the Americas took place 21,000 to 23,000 years ago.

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Evidence suggests the Americas were reached much earlier than previously thought

According to a press release from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), previous evidence of human presence in the Americas pointed to 14,000 to 16,000 years ago.

Radiocarbon dating of seeds found in fossilized footprints discovered in the U.S. state of New Mexico in 2009 revealed that humans were present on the continent 21,000 to 23,000 years ago.

Some archaeologists argued that the findings could be misleading, stating that the seeds of the aquatic plant Ruppia cirrhosa examined in the study could absorb carbon atoms from the water.

The follow-up research focused on determining the age of conifer pollen from land plants found in the footprints using the radiocarbon method.

FOSSILS ARE AT LEAST 21,500 YEARS OLD

In the study, which used at least 75,000 pollen grains, it was determined that the conifer pollen was the same age as the seeds of the Ruppia cirrhosa plant.

Scientists also used a dating method called "optically stimulated luminescence" to determine when the quartz grains in the fossil were last exposed to sunlight. The study showed that the fossils are at least 21,500 years old.

Researcher Kathleen Springer stated that they began age-determination studies using other methods while the article on the initial discovery of the fossils was being published, and that they are confident in the age of the footprints.

The scientific article on the research was published in the journal Science.

News Source: AA