Tag Archives: estimated

Ancient Human Footprints in White Sand Estimated to Be Up to 22,400 Years Old: New Research

Posted on by
Reply

The identification of human footprints in White Sands, New Mexico, estimated to be between 21,000 and 23,000 years old, was a significant advancement in our comprehension of the earliest inhabitants of the Americas. However, this research faced scrutiny concerning the dependability of radiocarbon dating materials, such as common aquatic plant seeds Rupiah Silhosa and coniferous pollen grains. A recent study, spearheaded by University of Arizona researcher Vance Holiday, indicates that the ancient mud from Perelora ceotero, the third material utilized for dating the footprints, dates back to approximately 20,700 to 22,400 years ago.

Ancient human footprints found in White Sands National Park, New Mexico, USA. Image credit: Bennett et al. , doi: 10.1126/science.abg7586.

Historically, scientists believed that humans entered North America roughly 16,000 to 13,000 years ago.

However, the footprints found at White Sands indicate that human presence in the area dates back to between 23,000 and 21,000 years ago. This timeline offers insights into the development of culture in North America.

The remnants of 10,000-year-old prints, uncovered nearly a century ago at a site near Clovis, New Mexico, led to a classification of artifacts long considered to represent the earliest known cultures in North America.

Critics have challenged two prior studies over the last four years, asserting that ancient species and pollen in the soil used for dating the footprints are unreliable indicators.

“The record is consistently strong, and it’s challenging to explain it all,” Dr. Holiday stated.

“As I mention in my publication, it would be an extraordinary coincidence for all these dates to be inaccurate.”

Thousands of years prior, the white sands formed from a series of lakes that eventually dried up.

Wind erosion created layers of plaster on the sand dunes that now characterize the region.

The footprints were excavated from stream beds that once fed into this ancient lake.

“Wind erosion has erased part of the narrative, leaving that segment lost. The remainder is buried beneath the world’s largest accumulation of plaster sand,” Dr. Holiday remarked.

For their latest research, Dr. Holiday and his team returned to White Sands in 2022 and 2023, excavating new trenches to gain deeper insights into the lakebed’s geology.

“We’ve put in considerable effort to explore this area,” stated Jason Windingstad, a doctoral candidate at the University of Arizona.

“You essentially find yourself questioning everything taught about North American populations.”

The authors recognize that their research hasn’t addressed lingering questions posed by critics since 2021: Why are there no artifacts or settlements left by the individuals who made the footprints?

“This is a valid inquiry. Some footprints discovered during the 2021 survey belong to a trackway that was created in mere seconds,” they explained.

“It is entirely plausible that hunter-gatherers would act with caution to avoid leaving resources in such a brief timeframe.”

“These individuals were aware of their resources and were distanced from their replacements.”

“They wouldn’t abandon artifacts casually. It doesn’t make sense for you to be viewing a debris field.”

The team’s recent findings will be published in the journal Advances in Science.

____

Vance T. Holliday et al. 2025. Perelorace Geochronology supports the last Glacier Max (LGM) age of human tracks in White Sands, New Mexico. Advances in Science 11 (25); doi:10.1126/sciadv.adv4951

Source: www.sci.news

Ancient Shock Crater Discovered in Australia, Estimated to be 34.7 Billion Years Old

Posted on by
Reply

A team of geologists from Curtin University discovered clear evidence of a high-speed impact that occurred 3.47 billion years ago (Archean EON) in the heart of the Pilbara region of Western Australia. This discovery makes it the oldest impact crater found on Earth, surpassing the previous record of 2.2 billion years.

Grind cones from the Arctic Dome in the heart of Australia’s Pilbara region. Image credit: Curtin University.

“When more than a million craters with diameters exceeding 1 km and over 40 km, more than 100 km, the moon holds an exquisite record of the intense artillery fire that the body of the inner solar system has endured during the first billion years of its history.”

“On Earth, this early impact record appears to reflect the destructive efficiency of erosion and subduction, bringing the primary skin back to the convection mantle.”

“Nevertheless, the oldest part of many cratons, the ancient (4-2.5 billion years ago) nuclei of the continent formed 3.5 billion years ago, must maintain evidence of impact fluxes beyond similar regions of the moon of comparable age.”

“However, the oldest recognized terrestrial impact structure in Yarabuba, Western Australia dates 2.23 billion years ago. Where are Archean Craters?”

Professor Johnson and his co-authors investigated the Archiunlock Formation at the Arctic Dome in the Pilbara region and discovered evidence affecting major metstones 3.5 billion years ago.

“This discovery has challenged our previous assumptions about the ancient history of our planet,” Professor Johnson said.

Researchers discovered Archean Crater thanks to crushed cones. This is a unique rock formation that has only formed under the intense pressure of the Metstone strike.

The crushed cone at the site, about 40 km west of the marble bar, was formed when metstones over 36,000 km/h were pounded into the area.

This was a major planetary event, with craters over 100 km wide sending fragments flying around the world.

“We know that in the early solar systems, seeing the moon is common,” Professor Johnson said.

“To date, the absence of truly ancient craters means they are largely ignored by geologists.

“This study provides an important part of the puzzle of Earth’s impact history and suggests that there may be many other ancient craters that can be discovered over time.”

“The discovery shed new light on the way metstones formed the early environment of the Earth,” said Chris Kirkland, a professor at Curtin University.

“Discovering this impact and finding more from the same period can explain a lot about how life began, as impact craters created an environment that is friendly to microbial life, such as heated pools.”

“It also fundamentally refines our understanding of the formation of the earth’s crust. The enormous amount of energy from this impact may have played a role in shaping the early Earth’s crust by pushing part of the Earth’s crust underneath another or rising from deeper into the Earth’s mantle towards the surface.

“It may have contributed to the formation of the craton, the large, stable land that formed the foundation of the continent.”

Discoveries are reported in a paper In the journal Natural Communication.

____

CL Kirkland et al. 2025. The Old Archian Impact Crater in Pyrabara Craton, Western Australia. Nut commune 16, 2224; doi:10.1038/s41467-025-57558-3

Source: www.sci.news

New research suggests the moon could be older than initially estimated

Posted on by
Reply

overview

  • New research suggests the moon may be older than many scientists thought.
  • This study suggests that the moon rock samples taken during the Apollo missions date back to an event in which the moon's surface melted, rather than the moment the moon formed.
  • Therefore, the authors believe that the Moon formed about 4.51 billion years ago, which is more than 100 million years earlier than the generally accepted estimate.

The moon may be more than 100 million years older than some scientists previously thought, according to a new study.

The study was published on Wednesday. journal naturechallenges long-held ideas The moon is thought to have formed about 4.35 billion years ago after an object the size of Mars crashed into the early Earth and created our natural satellite.

That timeline is based on analysis of lunar rock samples taken during NASA's Apollo mission. But new research shows that the moon formed much earlier, about 4.51 billion years ago, and then underwent a dramatic “remelting” phenomenon around the time other scientists thought the moon first formed. It suggests that you have experienced it.

According to the authors, the melting occurred because Earth's constant gravitational pull distorted the moon and made it extremely hot as it moved away from Earth. According to the study, this process altered the moon's surface and hid the moon's true age.

The study's lead author, Francis Nimmo, a professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said the extreme heating caused the moon's surface to re-melt, effectively “resetting all the clocks” on the moon's rocks. 'There is a possibility.

“So moon rocks don't tell us when the moon formed, but they tell us when subsequent events that heated the moon occurred,” he says.

The scientific community has disagreed for decades about the exact age of the moon. Nimmo and his colleagues are not the first to offer older estimates. This new discovery adds to the growing consensus that there may be more to the moon's history than the Apollo samples revealed.

For example, planetary scientists have wondered how a massive collision occurred 4.35 billion years ago, when most large objects in the history of the solar system were thought to have already come together to form planets. I have had a hard time explaining why the moon was formed.

“Those who studied the Apollo samples had reasonable guesses about the moon's age, but those who modeled how the planets in our solar system formed are wondering why so much material still remains after 200 million years. “It was always difficult to explain why the solar system was still flying,” Nimmo said. “That's the way it is, and the two camps want different ages.”

The adjusted schedule by Nimmo's team may also help explain why. A mineral called zircon found on the moon It was discovered in Apollo's moon rock and is estimated to be approximately 4.5 billion years old. The moon's zircons, like other minerals on the moon, were thought to have crystallized during the moon's extreme temperatures, but their much older age has long puzzled scientists. .

In a new study, Nimmo and his colleagues suggest that the moon's overheating is the product of a process known as “tidal heating.”

“There are certain spots where the moon's orbit can be temporarily thrown off as it gets pushed aside,” Nimmo said. “During that time, the moon can be squeezed and stretched by Earth's gravity, which causes it to heat up.”

Similar tidal heating is thought to occur between Jupiter and its moons. a 2020 survey Researchers have discovered that the gas giant's gravity can stretch and squeeze some of its icy moons to the point where they heat up their interiors and melt rocks into magma. It is believed that this also applies to Jupiter's moon Io.

Recent and upcoming lunar missions could provide better insight into the moon's evolutionary history, Nimmo said. This includes China's Chang'e 6 mission, which collected samples from…

“The evolution of the solar system was very rapid. In just tens of millions of years, all the objects we know today were formed,” Munker said. “That's why we need very good temporal resolution for these very early events and why it's important to understand how the Earth-Moon system formed.”

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Scimitar-tooth cat cub found in permafrost in Yakutia estimated to be 36,000 years old

Posted on by
Reply

of Frozen specimen from 36,000 years ago Originally from Yakutia Homotherium latidensA species of scimitar-toothed cat that lived in Eurasia during the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs.The modern lion cub is characterized by elongated front legs, an unusually shaped muzzle with a large mouth and small ears, and a very large body. differs greatly. Neck area and dark coat.

homotherium serum. Image credit: Sergiodlarosa / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Homotherium latidens It was 1.5 to 2 meters long, up to 1.1 meters high, and weighed up to 200 kilograms, about the same size as an average modern lion or tiger.

However, its physical appearance is It was different Differences from other big cats: This extinct species had long saber-like canine teeth, a sloping back, and a short tail.

“homotherium was widespread during the Pliocene to Pleistocene in Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas,” said lead author Dr. Alexei Lopatin and his colleagues.

“For a long time, as the latest presence, homotherium Records in Eurasia were recorded in the Middle Pleistocene. ”

“The key event was the discovery of a late Pleistocene mandible. Homotherium latidens It comes from the North Sea and dates back 28,000 years. ”

“The largest number of Late Pleistocene discoveries homotherium It is concentrated in North America (more than 30 regions), where it is traditionally classified as a species. homotherium serum”

In the new study, the authors examined frozen mummified corpses. Homotherium latidens A baby discovered in the Pleistocene permafrost at a place called Badlyikskoe, along the Badlyikkha River in northeastern Yakutia, Siberia.

“A large number of bones of representative mammoth animals have been collected from the loess loam of the Yedma horizon in this region,” they said.

Researchers say the Bajarica specimen is about 36,000 years old.

“The specimen includes the head and the anterior part of the body, which was preserved up to the caudal end of the thorax,” the researchers said.

“Some people have an incomplete pelvis with joints that connect with the femur and shin bones.”

“The baby was found trapped in ice along with its front part.”

According to the team's analysis, most of the postcranial features are Homotherium latidens It can be tracked already at 3 weeks of age.

“The length of the preserved part is homotherium The length from the tip of the baby's nose to the thoracic gap (at the level of the 12th vertebra) is 248 mm,” the scientists said.

“The body is Covered with short, thick, soft dark brown fur The length of the hair is about 20-30mm. The fur on the back and neck is longer than on the legs. ”

“Two rows of wool are clearly visible on the upper lip, most of which are broken off at a height of 3 to 5 mm from the base.”

“The hair around the corners of the mouth has grown considerably.”

“The overall morphology of the skull is typical of juvenile felines,” the researchers added.

“The skull is also characterized by a relatively long facial area, a rounded braincase, an expanded zygomatic arch, a wide area of ​​the premaxilla, and large maxillary deciduous incisors.”

“The bones of the nose are homotherium Compared to lion cubs, the cubs are significantly shorter and wider. ”

“The neck is longer than a lion's and more than twice as thick,” they said.

“The difference in thickness is explained by the large amount of muscle visually observed at the site where the skin was separated from the mummified flesh.”

“The length of the forelimb is homotherium Lion cubs are 18-23% larger than baby lions. ”

“At the same time, the body length of the latter is homotherium Or about 10% more. ”

“The increased size of the mouth cleft indicates adaptation to a wider mouth cleft.”

” front paws homotherium turnip It has a round shape. Its width is about the same as its body length, in contrast to lion cubs, whose front legs are long and relatively narrow. ”

“All claws are sharp and strongly curved. In cross section, the claws are laterally compressed, giving them the same shape as a lion cub.”

“The wide feet, square-shaped pads, and lack of carpal pads are adaptations to walking in snow and cold temperatures.”

“The pinna is small and low, and there is no carpal bone in Bajarica.” homotherium This contrasts with the taller pinnae and normally developed pads of lion cubs. All these characteristics can be interpreted as adaptations to life in cold climates. ”

discovery of Homotherium latidens Cub fundamentally expands our understanding of the distribution of this genus and confirms its presence in the Late Pleistocene of Asia.

“For the first time in the history of paleontological research, the appearance of an extinct mammal with no analogues in modern fauna has been directly studied,” the authors concluded.

their paper Published in this week's magazine scientific report.

_____

AV Lopatin others. 2024. Mummy of a young saber-toothed tiger Homotherium latidens From the Upper Pleistocene of Siberia. science officer 14, 28016; doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-79546-1

Source: www.sci.news

Discovery of ancient star in Milky Way halo estimated to be 12-13 billion years old by astronomers

Posted on by
Reply

Astronomers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have discovered very old stars in the Milky Way’s halo, a cloud of stars that covers the entire disk of our galaxy. These objects formed between 12 and 13 billion years ago, when the first galaxies were beginning to form. Researchers believe that each star once belonged to its own dwarf galaxy, which was later absorbed into the larger but ever-growing Milky Way, making them known as small accreting star systems (SASS). It’s called a star.

Artist’s concept of the Milky Way galaxy. Image credit: Pablo Carlos Budassi / CC BY-SA 4.0.

“Given what we know about galaxy formation, these oldest stars should definitely exist,” says MIT professor Anna Froebel.

“They are part of our cosmic family tree. And now we have a new way to find them.”

As they discover similar SASS stars, Professor Froebel and his colleagues hope to use them as analogues of ultrafaint dwarf galaxies, which are thought to be some of the first living galaxies in the universe.

These galaxies remain intact today, but they are too distant and faint for astronomers to study in detail.

SASS stars may once have belonged to similar primitive dwarf galaxies, but they are now located within the Milky Way and are much closer, making them more accessible for understanding the evolution of ultrafaint dwarf galaxies. This could be the key.

“Now we can look for more brighter analogs in the Milky Way and study their chemical evolution without chasing these very faint stars,” Professor Froebel said.

The low chemical abundances of these stars suggest that they first formed between 12 and 13 billion years ago.

In fact, their low chemical signature was similar to what astronomers had previously measured for several ancient, ultra-dark dwarf galaxies.

Are the team’s star players from similar galaxies? And how did they come to exist in the Milky Way?

Based on a hunch, scientists studied the orbital patterns of stars and how they move across the sky.

The three stars are located in different locations throughout the Milky Way’s halo and are estimated to be about 30,000 light-years from Earth.

When astronomers used observations from ESA’s Gaia satellite to trace the movement of each star around the galaxy’s center, they noticed something strange. All three stars appeared to be in motion, compared to most of the stars in the main disk, which move like cars on a race track. Wrong way.

In astronomy, this is known as retrograde motion, and is information that the object was once accreted or pulled in from elsewhere.

“The only way to get a star wrong from other members is if you throw it the wrong way,” Professor Froebel says.

The fact that these three stars orbit in a completely different way than the rest of the galactic disk or halo, combined with the fact that their chemical abundances are low, suggests that these stars are actually It was strongly argued that it was ancient and once belonged to an earlier era, a small dwarf galaxy that fell into the Milky Way at a random angle and continued its stubborn orbit billions of years later.

The authors were interested in whether retrograde motion was a feature of other ancient stars in the halo that astronomers had previously analyzed, and they looked at the scientific literature and found similarly low strontium and barium contents, discovered 65 other stars that appear to be moving in retrograde motion as well. Galaxy flow.

“Interestingly, they are all traveling very fast, hundreds of kilometers per second, in opposite directions,” Professor Froebel said.

“They’re on the run! We don’t know why it happened, but this is the piece of the puzzle we need and we never expected it when we started.”

Researchers are keen to find other ancient SASS stars, and now have a relatively simple recipe for doing so. First, they look for stars with low chemical abundance, then track their orbital patterns for signs of retrograde motion.

Researchers hope this method will uncover a small but significant number of the universe’s oldest stars, out of the more than 400 billion stars in the Milky Way.

“I really enjoyed working with three female undergraduates. It was a first for me,” said Professor Froebel.

“This is just an example of the MIT way. It is. And anyone who says, ‘I want to participate,’ can do so, and good things happen.”

team’s paper Published in Royal Astronomical Society Monthly Notices.

_____

Hilary Diane Anders other. 2024. The oldest star with a small amount of neutron-capturing elements and originating from an ancient dwarf galaxy. MNRAS 530 (4): 4712-4729; doi: 10.1093/mnras/stae670

Source: www.sci.news