Fossil footprints and Ice Age ecosystems of White Sands National Park

Introduction

In September 2021, National Park Service staff, U.S. Geological Survey scientists, and an international team of researchers revealed evidence in the form of human footprints at White Sands National Park, New Mexico, that showed people were present in North America between 23,000 and 21,000 years ago. This time was during the Last Glacial Maximum, when large ice sheets covered much of the continent. The results stunned the scientific community and sparked a global debate. The story of how the discoveries were made, how they upended traditional thought, and how they “rewrote the book” on the earliest phases of North American prehistory is a classic example of the process of science.