Ice Age Footprints (FULL SPECIAL) | NOVA | PBS America

[@kendallpatterson8987]

This is easily one of the coolest discoveries in modern times

[@thomasgraham5842]

man , i tell you , we found human footprints here in Northern ireland , OF BOTH ADULTS AND CHILDREN , hand prints and foot prints , right beside those are , bear prints , big cat prints , wolf prints , a very large three toed bird prints , the hight of which is between 4 foot to 10 foot tall , you can see where it sat on its lower legs , you see its knee prints its feather prints it was a big bird of some kind. there are many many prints of animals not yet identified . going in many directions , tracking one another , and one of a single man running fast , and you know what , NO ONE WANTS TO INVESTIGATE THESE . i have hundreds of photos and a few videos of them , and still no one wants to know , i contacted several palintolghyst , and still nothing . hahahahahahaha . its all about the clicks and money in youtube . all of these are in solid rock that at one time was mud flats .they are locked in time , thank god its now a country park , and it cant be developed over .

[@Yosetime]

About as cool as those dinosaur footprints prints they found, I think in Alberta, Canada. They were on the surface of completely vertical hard and smooth rock slabs that had been pushed up from the flat land during some land movement, as in how mountains were formed. They had to investigate those prints while hanging off of the cliff walls! Quite extraordinary. They even found evidence of a fight between 2 dinosaurs in these footprints. It's probably on PBS. Bet I saw it here. A couple years back I think. It's pretty awesome to think about how the first peoples got to North America though. Like, how did they do that? Some people think that they couldn't have had boats 20K years ago. But we're probably underestimating the ingenuity of our ancestors. Really, they had most likely learned to live on ice. They could have walked across it. Maybe there were some places to pass through easier or that there was another leg of land that perhaps is under the ocean now? Maybe there was some land exposed on the shoreline? I mean, animals had to migrate there too. They had to do it somehow. They certainly didn't have boats! Regardless of how they did get to North America though, we do know we all originated in eastern Africa and spread from there. We still share common ancestors from our early beginnings despite that North America became separated from modern day Russia by the ocean after the ice melted, isolating those first generations of people and animals. We are still one. Which makes what the Europeans did to the First Nations people even worse. They didn't know it at the time, but those Europeans were doing that to their own ancient, ancient ancestors. It was such a nasty period in our history that should bring us shame to this day. Kind of like slavery did. It's ironic that the first generations of white people in North America called the Indians "savages". When really, the Europeans, my own more direct ancestors, were the savages for what they did. They quite literally created racism, something that had never existed before the Romans and the rise of Christianity, and the invasion of North America. I also thought it was eye opening to know that the two layers of human footprints they found at White Sands are two thousand years apart. That's the same time frame between when Jesus was alive (if he ever was) and today. Isn't that weird to think about? Imagine us stumbling across the footprints of people from the time of Jesus? Some people would lose their minds over that!

[@juanlapuente833]

As evocative as it could seem to have the footprints of present day native Americans in White Sands, it is early to know if these footprints were really made by ancestors to the present population or by other peoples that dissappeared prior to the arrival of the ancestors of present native Americans. More reearch is needed and some bones associated to those footprints, or at least from the same time period. Actually, these footprints could be from hominins that were not even H.sapiens, as the possible human-made traces on mastodon bones in San Diego, there is no reason to assume that no hominin prior to H.sapiens arrived in America, we just have not found any traces yet.

[@IfPushComesToShove]

exactly what i thought and said in a comment. image white people in europe saying cro-magnons prove white people ancestry in europe and see what drama that would cause lol

[@big1dog23]

Great doc, but the Clovis theory has been out the window for a long time. The are much older sites scattered all over the Americas. Too numerous to list, but right here in my home state of Oregon, ID, PA, SC....

[@Caldwing]

I don't think any serious academics still buy Clovis first, but many are still pretty conservative about dates. Many are hesitant to accept anything over 15 kya. White Sands was the first totally incontrovertible evidence of humans in NA more than 20 kya. I certainly agree that the evidence for human activity in NA thousands--maybe tens of thousands--of years before Clovis was strong before White Sands, but it's still a very important site.

[@FelonyVideos]

PBS made it 20 minutes before engaging in racism. Getting better!

[@fredred7922]

racism ???

[@air4334]

If it wasn't for NOVA we would not know so many fascinating discoveries !!!! Love. NOVA !!!

[@thomasgraham5842]

well its cool , but there is way more than nova out there now .

[@janerkenbrack3373]

It seems most plausible to me that humans first arrived by boat, following the kelp highway that was mentioned in the video. It might have been a great leap of technology to figure out that people could fashion boats and travel by water, but the concept was plainly in front of them whenever they were by water. Every time some kid playing in the river floated on a log that was passing by, the idea would have shown itself. And, since the coastline of the continent was not where it is today, it is difficult to find evidence of such maritime travel. Perhaps when we are able to conduct archaeology offshore, in the area where the coastline used to be, that we will find settlements of humans dating back to the time (and before) these footprints were made.

[@Arkansas1989]

I'm pretty sure there's evidence of people living in South America prior to North America

[@StevenShelley-m6s]

Australia was inhabited about 48, 000 years ago, and they had to cross the ocean in boats. There was never a land bridge. If they could get there, they could get to North America by water.

[@StevenShelley-m6s]

Actually there are places where those shorelines are exposed above modern sea level due to tectonic uplift, the Queen Charlotte Islands in Canada for example. The real trick is identifying these early sites.

[@Caldwing]

It's very likely that humans mastered dugout canoes at the very least probably tens of thousands of years before they ever came near North America. Aside from the Aboriginal people of Australia already mentioned, it's very likely that modern humans moving out of Africa into Asia spread rapidly along the southern coasts of Asia, which are also now submerged. Even when we first looked across the water to Australia boats were very likely something that we were very familiar with.

[@forestdweller5581]

You are absolutely correct. Boating or even sailing comes naturally. It is not the big technological stepping stone it has been made out to be.

[@Bakedea87]

Well I will say every tribe or group/family of native Americans usually the have different origin stories. They don't all talk about migrations

[@tinatieden8499]

being that long ago, I think they are all our ancestors.

[@MossyMozart]

@Bakedea87 = _"They don't all talk about migrations"_ - - - - - - So? We know from experience that legends and oral historied cannot be counted upon. ----------- * Example: DNA has proved some Hawaiian oral genealogies to be in error. (I don't know if all of them have been examined utilizing DNA, though.) * Example: My siter-in-law can't remember where her aunt is buried and SHE'S THE ONE who drove her uncle there!

[@TerriAnnNiemeier-dy3no]

Migration is so interesting, from ? Mexico, hummm Caveman n women. The Caves of women included fire, those crazy Men, out chasing a Big Fat Mammoth

[@TerriAnnNiemeier-dy3no]

Migration, following the animals no doubt, they lead you to water, etc. Works even today.

[@robmcelwee389]

Old native origin stories are just that. Stories. Pure fiction.

[@davebrunette6394]

There is too much evidence out there. People have been in America a lot longer than we once believed.

[@ThomasGilmore-fi6gb]

Do yourself a favor and skip to 3:10

[@petepete66]

Think of the creator … every life has a plan … nature has a plan to rebuild itself… automatically knows what to do… in a perfekt cycle… also humans … 🍀🍀🍀✌️🌎✌️🍀🍀🍀🔥🔥🔥🧚🧚🧚🌱

[@michaelkamradt4700]

You're using the traverse backwards.

[@tonyk421]

Hey, PBS bring back Cosmos, with Carl Sagan.

[@FreedomToRoam86]

Kind of a small load of meat for the woman to haul in the experiment; a small load of meat is easier to carry that drag, in my experience. If you are butchering a large animal, equivalent to a modern day elk in meat, you would plan on sturdier travois limbs, so you could haul it all out at once. Granted not as tough of terrain as mountains that elk and large deer like muleys are hunted in, but would bite to have to come back for more of the meat, and find dire wolves claimed it instead!

[@davidbamford4721]

I assumed that the travois would have been used with two points in the sand. I recall seeing illustrations of North American indigenous tribes using a triangular frame to carry the materials of their teepees.

[@Yosetime]

Yes, met too. They also used them to carry the old and sick, and children. But perhaps that invention came later than the times of the footprints? There would have been a learning process to get to the two pole idea, and even the Teepee (Tipi?) idea. We also cannot rule out that they used animals, like horses or the camels, to carry stuff, perhaps to pull a similar contraption. We do know that llamas and alpacas, now native to South America, descended from those camels and have been used there for a long time like pack horses to carry things up and down the mountains. But the footprints might have been made too early for that as well. What I always wonder is, how did the camels get to North America if they originated in Africa? Mysteries abound! I do find it difficult to wrap my brain around what 10K years of progression in developing new ideas would look like. We've made such leaps and bounds in the last 500 years that it seems impossible that the same learning process could be stretched across thousands of years instead. Most people these days don't even know that it was barely a couple hundred years ago that we invented portable lights (candle and other fueled lanterns) and then electrical lights. Before that, nighttime was dark all the time. Now, there is no darkness at all. We have lit up the world 24/7. That invention alone has changed everything from our sleeping patterns, travel patterns, and even how criminals operate. Most people today can't imagine how we survived before we could light up the nighttime and do whatever we wanted all night long instead of staying at home and sleeping. Can you imagine living in Canada in winter with only 8 hours of daylight and zero ways to create light? Tough times indeed!

[@damonbryan7232]

If animals could go from north America to Siberia. Why is humans not able to go from Siberia to north America at the same time? Not tens of thousands of years ago but hundreds of thousands years ago. Ice free corridor doesn't explain cloves/sullutrian points thirty thousand years old. Doesn't explain how migrating bands made it from Alaska to southern tip of south America in just a few thousand years. Why are all the white sands footprints barefooted? Coming from Siberia, they would have known how to make boots and shoes.

[@StevenShelley-m6s]

Have you ever walked on a mucky wet surface like that in boots? I have and had one boot sucked off my foot. Clovis is 10,000 years later than these tracks, and Clovis is about 12,000 years before today. FYI there is a site about 20 miles from these tracks with Clovis, and with artifacts layers below (earlier) than Clovis, dating to about 15 000 years ago, and possibly older. There are Ice Age animals in that site from 50,000 years ago.

[@jskjsk3986]

Migrations were more likely by water following shorelines. I would like to hear an archaeologist admit that they don't know how old something is.

[@MossyMozart]

If you mean the footprints, as they said in the video, the age has been determined using radio carbon dating. In a follow-up _NOVA_ (a short, maybe) they have now been dated using multiple methods that all collaborate.

[@Docrock-z9k]

​​​​@@jskjsk3986they dated organic material embedded in the footprint. If you walked barefoot on a clay bank or any soft surface and stepped on wild plant seeds and then the soft surface dried andcwas oreserved for thousands of years then the same dating method would be used to provide a c14 date that would give an estimated date within about 100 years of 2024. If you think it is only speculative then that is something you would have to argue with people in fields like chemistry and physics.

[@marcshelstead5355]

I believe not one native American tribe say the came from Siberia across the ice bridge

[@outdoorloser4340]

Some people say that those are actually Mormon tracks.

[@picasaechave3058]

Is just as likely that the people came across the sand, took off their shoes to feel it and enjoyed it, so they continued walking with no shoes, sometimes running because it's fun! The foot print is on the top layer with and blowing on them and off them. Never consistent and never still. Yet the layers underneath were laid and stayed in chronological order. There's no way to tell the age based on the layers. Older things could be above younger things. And there is not a thick layer of millions of years worth of sand layers above the prints. Because the sand moves and shifts

[@Yosetime]

Did you actually listen to the program? At the time the footprints were made, it wasn't a dried up sandy desert like it is now. Remember the lake? The lake that they said dried up and turned into the White sands? Those prints went of for many, many miles, in a straight line. They weren't going to the beach! They weren't dancing around as a giant sloth was following them or among the many, many other dangerous animals they might run into. It was the ice age. They were surviving, not partying! The reason we didn't find the footprints earlier is because they were buried under lighter, newer sand. The lighter sand allowed for erosion to wear away the top layers to reveal the prints, only about 10K or so years worth, not millions. Nobody said millions. Don't know where you got that from. The dating of the layers was done using carbon dating of seeds and the skills of professionals. They even showed us how it was done. Full explanation! I 'm pretty sure the archaeologists have considered all the options and are far better suited to draw conclusions than random YT viewers! But when you find an example of how layers of newer compressed sand could possibly be underneath another layer of compressed sand 2 thousand years older, you should let them know!!! I bet they'd like your expertise! Kind of feels like you just don't want to believe the science, or perhaps need to watch the show a little more carefully. Maybe not compare these ancient people to what you'd do on a Sunday afternoon. It's just weird for someone to try to debunk this evidence when they clearly have no idea what is going on. Insulting really.

[@427max]

Love how they only visit when the weather has been just right to not disturb the track or ground around them and how careful they are right up to the missile range lol

[@jonathaneffemey944]

Thanks for posting

[@manzell]

The Native American perspective on western archaeologists seems to be very similar to the way Christians feel about them.

[@dain6250]

I don't know a single archaeologist with a even a sliver of an iota of interest in excavating christian burials from 200 years ago.

[@manzell]

@dain6250 200 years ago?

[@dain6250]

@@manzell as a rule I don't dig up people who are still juicy. That's for forensic people.

[@atheistapostate7019]

It’s been posited that the first Americans came down the western coast line and around the ice sheets.

[@brian_coreas]

They Should Extract As Much Foot and Paw Prints As Possible.

[@marc-andrebrunet5386]

Very interesting Discovery 👍

[@secularsunshine9036]

*Have a Wonderful Winter's Solstice.* *Happy Yule, aka Jol, aka The Rebirth of the Sun.* There are 12 days of Yule. *Let the Sunshine In...* thanks

[@rainbowiam]

Yule starts on the 24th! Thanks to the Catholic Church... Although, technically, it would have started tomorrow, the day after the solstice. 🤷

[@johngrundowski3632]

Thanks 🎉 same to you & you loved ones ❄️☃️🎄

[@dougmacgregor5053]

Good for folks to be made aware, wish it contained more science and less of the fill

[@MWhaleK]

The first people most likely came by boat.

[@MossyMozart]

That is this conclusion - that they came along the Western North American coast from Asia. As they said, after the glaciers melted, any costal settlements would now be under water.

[@kt6332]

I heard disease is also a good cause of extinction, viruses and bacterial infection and diseases.

[@JohnJude-dp6ed]

I'll say every native American tribe claims this country was made for them and when it's a gift to humans it was before their time so this land has always been a gift for the taking 😮. Time to respect all treaties as they are how we have been living together and it's saved them to give it up and been allowed to live in this conquer land . The trackers certainly must be walking on tracks below the sands underneath so should limit where people are walking.

[@bernardlowe1265]

Pooring sand back over the footprints would save them I reckon.

[@jhosk]

Ice age footprint? Umm wouldn't it have to be much warmer at the time to have water in all the areas they find tracks?

[@MossyMozart]

It was _still_ the Ice Age even if they were too far south for a glacier to cover New Mexico.

[@robmcelwee389]

You're not too bright.

[@a-world-view]

we are in the ICE AGE now, just not in the snow ball earth.

[@RodneyRhiness]

to bad some of the "experts" didn't know how to use travois,..... the two pole ends drag on the ground with the puller between the poles,.... the opposite of what they did,.... experts, eh??

[@jonnyueland7790]

Those people where not ancient Indians. Because they came after the ice age!

[@Traveling-Lite]

Emily Lindsey, at about the 17:45 time stamp, mentions "coming out of the ice age". I have a strong feeling the Ice age hasn't ended, and is "still retreating"; but now its given a new name, climate change, lol.

[@Ai-he1dp]

One piggy made a house of straw, the other a house of sticks and another a house of stone, unfortunately the little pigs were unrelated and not near one another.

[@rolffigueiredo3786]

Stupid question, where are all the different fossils? Did they all conveniently fall into that tar pit ??

[@cacogenicist]

It's definitely not the only possibility, but genetic evidence is entirely consistent with the people in N. America during the last glacial maximum _not_ being ancestors of any extant indigenous peoples. There are more experts in the field who think this is likely the case than there are those who state their position on the matter publicly -- because, I suppose, the idea is a bit impolitic, in some circles. It could be the case that the very early populations were small, and were completely replaced by much larger subsequent migrations starting around 17kya. If this sounds strange, consider that the first modern people in Europe were definitely not the ancestors of any group in Europe now.

[@Eric-qo8vv]

I’m of the opinion the land belongs to everyone. I’m as much a Native American as the original

[@TerriAnnNiemeier-dy3no]

The toes know, 5, poss. ,6, and sometimes webbed some missing parts. Ground sloths, ? No trees to eat ? Start shifting sand for seeds. What is buried down below the sand ?

[@StevenShelley-m6s]

What is buried beneath the sand? Gypsum sand and silt from Lake Otero.

[@TerriAnnNiemeier-dy3no]

I love it Thanks

[@Arkansas1989]

People walking barefoot during the Ice Age?

[@StevenShelley-m6s]

Yes, they walked around barefoot.

[@nataliemamo8709]

Global temperatures 20 000 years ago woukd have been about 5 C colder than they are now. So in the southern states, people were walking barefoot yes

[@DeborahThird-og1uo]

It’s “trav-wah”. French word.

[@WandaDeeBackroads]

If you want to do a show about science, then do a show about science. If you want to do a show about native American politics, then do a show about native American politics. Science has often been distorted to push a political agenda and it never ends well, slavery and eugenics just name two.

[@bryanedmonds220]

This, exactly. I'm a little disappointed in PBS tbh... Why is this lady assuming its HER ancestors?

[@matthew3136]

Science is TRUTH. Stop arguing against actual knowledge of our human evolution. You can’t pick and choose reality when it suits your feelings.

[@johngrundowski3632]

​@beadyeye2312 agree ,they also didn't go deep( a foot?) but drawing out the funding?- thanks

[@fredparker7767]

Tell me that you voted for der Führer Trump, without saying so.

[@alainclvpentax8798]

Why don’t you make your own documentary then I’ll be the critics. Merry Christmas

[@daviderlenbusch7119]

Jesus, how did this doc go off the goddamn rails so fucking quickly? Shame on PBS. This isn't science, it's not archaeology, it's not palentology, a political diatribe.

Homo Erectus?

[@matsforsberg6287]

Nobody knows and mainstream archeology and science are withholding the chances to find out by not listening to people that have other theories as we must have. Because someone have said so. Probably some stupid narrowminded rich nobel English amateur

[@IzharJoesphaaron]

Aisa blood type 0, future now passed. A very profound mother Earth research hum, what happened to the rest left in Aisa Hum time stone pyramids anua asifan oallofus we haha haha em china get in the way

[@julesotis13]

of course they don't want PBS cuz y'all carry on the needed mission of trying to get the message out that our society needs to do better to survive and militarization domination winning all the destructive attitudes of the current dominant society are out of whack with life

[@marcus7980]

1st

[@gst9325]

the stupid music and narration... and you wonder why tv lost the race

[@arlahunt4240]

I’m sure of not much! Who knows if it’s Native American Indians. It could be another group completely unknown to anyone here at this time. You guys are making a lot of assumptions. Nothing Ties this to the Indians of Canada and Minnesota or Great Lakes areas, or the Western Southern American or Mexico areas.

[@nataliemamo8709]

Any group of humans living in the americas pre-european colonization is a native american group

[@JoelBrothers]

Has anyone ever wondered why a group of Homo Sapiens would be walking barefoot through the Ice Age glacial snow barefooted? We know Neanderthals made footwear, so why did Sapiens not wear foot wear? They did in Europe and Asia. I think the dating may be suspect. Seems too convenient.

[@StevenShelley-m6s]

The original dating was suspect. The more recent dating appears solid. I know because I got to review the draft of the second paper before it was published.

[@nataliemamo8709]

Because nobody would have been walking on “glacial snow” in the southern americas during the ice age. The global temperature was about 5 degrees Celsius cooler and the fact that they made FOOTPRINTS IN MUD proves that they didn’t. Its common sense

[@TerriAnnNiemeier-dy3no]

God returned, and was she pissed off, so mad, she shrunk all the animals. The Forest was everywhere, so we're the Bugs, not to doubt Poop as big as SUVs, I laugh it's your lies, tell them your way.

[@markpaul-ym5wg]

Bigfoot walks center line, while humans walk off center line.After the research and evidence i have found about bigfoot, i think the reason they walk with one step in center line with the other, is because they walk slightly slumped over, while looking for nuts and other food.Their knees and elbows are bent while they walk.They have a pad below their toes, that help them walk silently while sneaking up on their prey.

[@Caldwing]

I appreciate that you are approaching this from a scientific perspective. Obviously you have some interest in the study of anthropology if you are here at this video. However, in case you aren't aware, actual anthropologists (not to imply I am one) consider the idea of bigfoot totally laughable. I was all set to write something insulting but thankfully I got the better of my asshole streak. I'm not going to spout off the details unless you ask, but there is no evidence that bigfoot is real, and a ton of evidence that it's a very recent (like the 1950s) myth. If you want to post your ideas concerning the biology and behaviour of non-human hominins, there is an enormous world of real science in this area that is so much more interesting and dramatic than anything in the dingy world of cryptozoology. Our knowledge is changing so fast and old ideas are having to be thrown away all the time. This video is a great example of that. There's the massive debate about Homo naledi and whether or not they were burying their dead. Did Polynesians make contact with South America pre-Columbus? Who are the ancestors of Homo floresiensis? How did farming and animal domestication start and why? I think trying to imagine the biology of bigfoot is fun too, but it's just that: total imagination. You can do the same thing with so many incredible creatures who we have actual evidence for.

[@blainefeltman3307]

Don't give a hoot about there tribes!!

[@eddiehoppe]

My opinion is foot prints are from people trying escape the great flood from Noah's time (2 Peter 2:5 and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly.

[@StevenShelley-m6s]

Well you how do you account for tracks in multiple layers layer down over 2000 years? I guess they were running from that flood for a long time huh?

[@moloko5]

@@StevenShelley-m6s This is your brain on religion.

[@picasaechave3058]

Don't spread lies, especially about the Bible. You are trying to link everything to your own belief instead of looking at evidence, understanding how things work, and making solid conclusion based on the evidence we have. If the people are running from the "flood", a water source would have been present that they knew to run from. They didn't hear through the grapevine about the flood that was coming either to know they should fear the water coming. However, the way sand works is if you dig a great big hole and water comes down on it or over it, the hole will fill in with sand and disappear. If they were running from the flood, the prints would not have had enough time to harden before the flood waters came in. There would be no evidence remaining. You should learn and know before you speak so you don't come across as ignorant

[@andykane9866]

No

[@Lonnie-bb5ok]

The solutrians we're on the Atlantic coast , traveling across the ice sheet from Europe

[@MossyMozart]

Hardly likely, since the DNA of Native Americans goes to Asia.

[@StevenShelley-m6s]

Actually, the Solutrians, if they did make it, were likely travelling along the ice sheets by boat. Not so far fetched, the Eskimoes did it in skin kayaks.

[@mr.pricklepants5044]

The Solutrean hypothesis has very weak evidence to support it. Just one meagre rock point, similar but not Solutrean, was found on the coast. Hardly enough to start making grandiose claims.

[@abigailandino6251]

WTF

[@abenakiflaker]

Solutrian

[@Lonnie-bb5ok]

The solutrians we're on the Atlantic coast , traveling across the ice sheet from Europe

[@MossyMozart]

No.

[@Lonnie-bb5ok]

The solutrians we're on the Atlantic coast , traveling across the ice sheet from Europe

[@MossyMozart]

Still no.

[@Lonnie-bb5ok]

@MossyMozart I think the nutrients come across the ice sheet from Europe and in the Western Clovis man probably came from Asia across the Bering land bridge I could be wrong

[@Lonnie-bb5ok]

Dang voice to text meant to say solutrians of European desent

[@Idellphany]

I think scientists are tracing the DNA, there are two waves, one from Russia up north, and one from Australia.