Response to Comment on "Evidence of humans in North America during the Last Glacial Maximum"

Madsen . question the reliability of calibrated radiocarbon ages associated with human footprints discovered recently in White Sands National Park, New Mexico, USA. On the basis of the geologic, hydrologic, stratigraphic, and chronologic evidence, we maintain that the ages are robust and conclude th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2022-01, Vol.375 (6577), p.eabm6987-eabm6987
Main Authors: Pigati, Jeffrey S, Springer, Kathleen B, Bennett, Matthew R, Bustos, David, Urban, Thomas M, Holliday, Vance T, Reynolds, Sally C, Odess, Daniel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Geology
Humans
New Mexico
North America
Reproducibility of Results
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Summary:Madsen . question the reliability of calibrated radiocarbon ages associated with human footprints discovered recently in White Sands National Park, New Mexico, USA. On the basis of the geologic, hydrologic, stratigraphic, and chronologic evidence, we maintain that the ages are robust and conclude that the footprints date to between ~23,000 and 21,000 years ago. Madsen . ( ) question the veracity of calibrated radiocarbon ages used to constrain the antiquity of human trackways discovered recently at White Sands National Park (WHSA) Locality 2, New Mexico, USA ( ). The ages were derived from seeds of the aquatic plant , which they suggest may suffer from hard-water (or reservoir) effects, making them too old, potentially by thousands of years. We were well aware of this possibility, investigated it, and presented several lines of evidence that argued against such a problem. Here we respond to each of their four primary points.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.abm6987