'Ghost tracks' show humans were in North America 23,000 years ago | The Big Idea

NEW YORK - Human footprints, or what archeologists call "ghost tracks," have been found beneath layers of the glistening desert at White Sands National Park in New Mexico. The revelation is that these footprints are surprisingly old — 23,000 years old, which is as far back as the last ice age.

"We now have very strong evidence that Native Americans or humans were present in North America during the last glacial maximum," said archeologist Daniel Odess, the chief scientist and cultural resource director for the National Park Service. Odess has made multiple pilgrimages to New Mexico in recent months uncovering what he calls a significant find. 

The footprints were found along what archeologists call a lake edge environment. Scientists said these prints belong to teens and young children. 

"You often see groups of kids off on their own playing, older kids keeping an eye on younger kids," Odess said.

The fine-grain sand held on to the impressions made by the humans who walked the earth some thousands of years ago.

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Cornell University research scientist Tommy Urban has been on the ground dozens of times. His role is working in the field, performing geophysical imaging to find the footprints where you can't see them.

"It can depend on the lighting conditions and the moisture conditions. A light rain, some of them might pop out better but then disappear again," Urban said. "That's why we call them ghost tracks. Then there are ones wholly underneath where you can't see them."

Urban uses a radar console to process data assisting fellow researchers by collecting ditch grass seeds from each bed and measuring their carbon. This determines the oldest human footprint alongside a mammoth around 22,800 years back. 

The search for more footprints doesn't stop. There's more to see and more to uncover. There are some 80,000 acres of white sands with footprints quickly disappearing. Those embedded tracks could be gone in a matter of months or years.