Researchers uncovered fossilized footprints—and what lies beneath them—in the White Sands National Monument in New Mexico.
Hidden since the end of the last ice age, the invisible markings reveal a treasure trove of information about how humans and animals interacted 12,000 years ago.
A team, led by Cornell University research scientist Thomas Urban, used ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to examine the footprints of humans, mammoths, and giant sloths.
“We never thought to look under footprints,” Urban said in a statement. “But it turns out that the sediment itself has a memory that records the effects of the animal’s weight and momentum in a beautiful way.
“It gives us a way to understand the biomechanics of extinct fauna that we never had before,” he added.
Nondestructive GPR lets analysts access hidden information without excavation. Rather, users drag a sensor over the surface, sending a radio wave into the ground. The signal bouncing back provides a picture of what’s underground.
Including details about pressure and momentum of the extinct foot and body making those tracks.
Sure, these “ghost” footprints may become visible for a short time after rain, or when conditions are just right.
But now, using geophysics methods, they can be recorded, traced, and investigated in 3D to reveal animal and human interactions, history, and mechanics “in genuinely exciting new ways,” study co-author and Cornell professor Sturt Manning said.
The novel approach also gives researchers a way to learn about what early humans did when they weren’t at a camp or kill site—the two archaeological scenes best known for this time period.
“The GPR technique gets us to the space in between [sites] and lets us see how people are tracking animals or moving around for other tasks of daily life,” Urban explained.
“There are very few footprint records for human-megafauna interactions,” he continued. “It’s really rare to have access to this kind of data from 12,000 or more years ago.”
Ground-penetrating radar has bigger implications than just this case study, according to Urban, who suggested the method could be applied to other fossilized footprint sites—including those of dinosaurs.
“We have already successfully tested the method more broadly at multiple locations within White Sands,” he said.
Read more in the full study, published this week by the journal Scientific Reports.
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