Thousands of Years Ago, a Human Stepped in a Mammoth Print. Those Tracks Still Exist
DAVID NIELD
13 NOV 2019
Spread across the White Sands National Monument in New Mexico lie the 'ghost tracks' of long-dead mammoths. Now, researchers using a special type of scan have revealed other footprints; they belong to ancient humans walking deliberately inside mammoth tracks.
It's a fascinating glimpse into life some 12,000 years ago at the end of the Pleistocene era, and it's made possible through the use of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) scans, which are able to peer beneath the surface of the ground to reveal the hidden contours underneath.
GPR isn't a new technology it's used to check for cracks in railway lines, and in geology and archaeology but it hasn't been deployed in this way on fossilised footprints before. It promises to give scientists access to a host of tracks and prints that aren't visible to the naked eye.
These hidden records can tell us much more than just who (or what) walked where: a footprint can reveal the size and gait of animals, the way that humans and megafauna interacted with each other, and more detail about life in the last Ice Age.
More:
https://www.sciencealert.com/innovative-radar-tech-offers-a-new-look-at-ancient-human-and-mammoth-footprints?perpetual=yes&limitstart=1