National Geographic News, Reporting Your World Daily

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Photo: Footprints Show 1st Americans Came 25,000 Years Early?


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Indentations like this one found in 2003 in Mexico (in an undated photo) were formed when prehistoric people walked in soft, damp volcanic ash along a lakeshore shortly after a volcanic eruption, some experts say.

A new analysis of the features dates them to 40,000 years ago—suggesting that people were living in the Americas much earlier than previously thought, according to a report presented in May 2008.

Photograph courtesy Silvia Gonzalez, Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom