Posted on 05/04/2019 9:20:01 AM PDT by rdl6989
The earliest human footprint on record in the Americas wasn't found in Canada, the United States or even Mexico; it was found much farther south, in Chile, and it dates to an astonishing 15,600 years ago, a new study finds.
The finding sheds light on when humans first reached the Americas, likely by traveling across the Bering Strait land bridge in the midst of the last ice age.
This 10.2-inch-long (26 centimeters) print might even be evidence of pre-Clovis people in South America, the group that came before the Clovis, which are known for their distinctive spearheads, the researchers said.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Ping! This is older than Monte Verde.
Thanks rdl6989. Three possible hearths at Monte Verde RC dated to 33K old, but the most solid dates are a little younger than this footprint. Even those slightly Preclovis dates brought on more histrionic tantrums than anything that happened until Donald Trump was elected.
So, if Lewis and Clark could cross the entire North American continent (Jefferson’s Washington DC office to Oregon’s west coast and back!) in less than three years by foot, horse, boat and wagon, how long would it take to get from Alaska to Chile by foot?
It’s been done on horse back.
Great book about it, but can’t remember name.
If they found footprints in Chile, how long would it have taken people to migrate south from the Bering land bridge? 1,000 years? 5,000?
I’m always curious what prompted people to move and how far they could go in one year. Did they move 10 miles a year? 50?
Did they know that there could be places with warmer climates and that they should head south? How could they have known that?
This is exactly my question. How long would this have taken? Did they take some kind of boat/canoe down the coast?
“May Be”
I believe in God’s science. This world has been around 6 thousand yrs.Maybe a Little bit more.
I’d say they moved from hill to hill with a nearby waterhole and plants in the surround.
well if chunky Honduran girls can walk to the USA in a matter of weeks .......
I guess how long it too prehistoric man to get to Chile depends upon how fast they moved south from Alaska and what factors that motivated them to keep moving south. The one thing I’m confident of is that the early travelers didn’t have a Fodor’s Tour Guide to help them on their way.
“hill to hill” is probably the correct answer. But, still, they had to head in a generally consistent direction (south) and not go in circles over the years. It’s fascinating looking at the early human migrations out of Africa, through the middle east, across the inhospitable steppes and mountains of the Asian continent, up to the bitter cold of the north (which makes no sense), then across the Bering land bridge and eventually south again. Most migrations would logically be toward more abundant hunting and foraging. Going north to the frozen wastes doesn’t make sense.
.
“If they found footprints in Chile, how long would it have taken people to migrate south from the Bering land bridge? 1,000 years? 5,000?”
Or perhaps they crossed the seas. There seems to be considerable evidence of this in extreme antiquity.
I’ve often wondered how the Pacific islands were populated.
Polynesians greatest sailors\navigators ever!
I think the way it is for larger mammals is the same - it got crowded, so pressure evolved in one direction: away from the crowd and towards more food, better hunting. Sure, there were exceptions - some may have wandered towards less food, worse conditions. Just that on the average, populations tend to spread out to "fill the room".
The movie "Ao, the last Neanderthal" depicts some of this. Cool prehistoric docu-drama-comedy.
I’m sure you are right. There was probably a lot of unintentional “experimentation” going on. Those that headed in the wrong direction, say toward the hot, sterile desert, perished. You could say that was early Darwinism at work. Those that moved in the right direction toward a more hospitable climate and more food thrived.
That still doesn’t explain why people would leave fertile areas and head north toward Siberia to cross the land bridge. That’s a real head scratcher. Maybe they developed an affinity for seal blubber.
Geese
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