Fossil footprints show humans in North America more than 21,000 years ago

This is exciting news for folks who are interested in ancient migrations of people, globally.

It has long been thought people arrived via the sea from the west, to our side of the pond - before the Ice Age. And the way DNA has mutated as it has evolved has substantiated that also. Nat Geo has done a good job of showing migrations out of Africa based on that.

Just now happened upon this article with proof of footprints. Apparently it has been researched for a number of years. It is referred to as "new research", so it looks like it has all been consolidated, peer reviewed, and as the article states, finally published Thursday (today), with the actual date of publishing at Science • 24 Sep 2021 • Vol 373, Issue 6562 • pp. 1528-1531 •
DOI: 10.1126/science.abg7586.

"The term “Last Glacial Maximum” is how scientists refer to the height of the last ice age, about 20,000 to 26,000 years ago.

It has long been debated whether humans arrived in the Americas by a northern route from Siberia before or after the Last Glacial Maximum, when vast sheets of ice would have made migration along the Pacific Coast or through western Canada impossible.

The ancient footprints at White Sands answer that question, suggesting that they may have arrived up to 30,000 years ago, thousands of years before the height of the ice age, Bennett said."