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The reason I'm talking about a viable population is that the probability of us finding a site from a single band, or even a small group rounds to zero. Dating errors are far, far more likely than that. If the footprints are correctly dated, they almost certainly indicate a low density population spread across the continent. However that begs the question of where those people went, genetically. It's much less interesting if they aren't ancestral to modern native Americans, so I'll ignore that. If they are, there should be a fairly clear genetic evidence of the divergence, rather than the known divergence long after these footprints are dated. You can make a handwavy argument that the southern population was so small that a later migration overwhelmed their genetic contribution, but then why was their population so small, given the abundant resources? Similarly, we don't see late quaternary extinctions meaningfully start until at least the end of the LGM. There's arguments you can make to vaguely explain this, but none of them really fit with the idea we have from earlier with these people being highly adaptable, high technology hunters. We'd also expect things like charcoal (admittedly LGM records are sparse), environmental DNA (quite possibly no one has looked at the appropriate layers in the right areas with this, but the ones I've seen have not detected human presence), floral changes, etc. These sorts of incongruities continue everywhere we try to reconcile these dates. Of course, we could ditch the narrative angle and simply say "here's a disparate collection of dates and facts", but that's not very useful as theory. That's why I'm still on the conservative side of "we need more data", because the dates really do look good, but they're currently very hard to reconcile with what's known from independent lines of evidence. |
>We'd also expect things like charcoal... ...have not detected human presence), floral changes, etc.
In addition to this type of evidence perhaps they should focus on locating DNA evidence from coprolites or similar traces of the humans who left those tracks. One track-way has been described as a young female carrying a baby and occasionally setting the baby on the ground. Perhaps there is a sample of human DNA from the child somewhere along that track set.
The geological situation in New Mexico before their arrival created natural shelters for these people during the vulcanism related to opening of the Rio Grande Rift which led to formation of a number of volcanic features across the region including lava tubes which would have made excellent shelters. The tuff from eruptions is easy to dig and as you can see in Bandelier National Monument northwest of there, durable shelters capable of being utilized for generations can be dug with simple tools.
During this time period, in present-day western New Mexico there was also active vulcanism. It's apparent that natural, durable shelter was available as was food and water so they would have no need to maintain a nomadic lifestyle. Excavation of some of the lava tubes nearest this ancient lake may provide some of the materials that help place these people in time relative to the rest of us.
Thanks for the discussion. I appreciate your insight.