Alleged 40,000-year-old human footprints in Mexico much, much older than thought

Scientists at Berkeley have dated some rock that is likely to add fuel to the OEC-YEC controversies. The discovery may also fuel the continued debate re: the veracity of various dating methods. No matter what your personal perspective re: this controversy, the article is interesting nonetheless. I have highlighted portions of the original news release below.

Alleged footprints of early Americans found in volcanic rock in Mexico are either extremely old - more than 1 million years older than other evidence of human presence in the Western Hemisphere - or not footprints at all, according to a new analysis published this week in Nature.

The study was conducted by geologists at the Berkeley Geochronology Center and the University of California, Berkeley, as part of an investigative team of geologists and anthropologists from the United States and Mexico.

A tracery of tire marks amid indentations in the volcanic rock. Note the resemblance to shoeprints, not footprints.

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Earlier this year, researchers in England touted these "footprints" as definitive proof that humans were in the Americas much earlier than 11,000 years ago, which is the earliest firm date for human settlements after the first Americans arrived across a northern land-bridge from Asia.

These scientists, led by geologist Silvia Gonzalez of Liverpool's John Moores University, dated the volcanic rock at 40,000 years old….

But Paul Renne, director of the Berkeley Geochronology Center and an adjunct professor of earth and planetary science at UC Berkeley, and his colleagues in Mexico and at Texas A&M University report in the Dec. 1 issue of Nature a new age for the rock: about 1.3 million years.

"You're really only left with two possibilities," Renne said. "One is that they are really old hominids - shockingly old - or they're not footprints."

I won’t quote anymore of what you can read in the original yourself here.

I do find it interesting that Renne’s final quote reveals that we’re “left with only two possibilities.” I can think of lots of other possibilities… problem is they go against currently accepted beliefs.

Irrespective of any of this… the folks over AIG, and the ICR are likely to have a field day with this.

Sorry, beat you to this one
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by kenshiro2012
Sorry, beat you to this one

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Doh!!!

Kenshiro... too quick on the draw... Mods please delete.