IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v438y2005i7068d10.1038_nature04425.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Age of Mexican ash with alleged ‘footprints’

Author

Listed:
  • Paul R. Renne

    (Berkeley Geochronology Center
    University of California)

  • Joshua M. Feinberg

    (University of California)

  • Michael R. Waters

    (Texas A&M University)

  • Joaquin Arroyo-Cabrales

    (Laboratório de Arqueozoología, Subdirección de Laboratórios y Apoyo Académico, Instituto Nacionál de Antropología e Historia)

  • Patricia Ochoa-Castillo

    (Subdirección de Arqueología, Museo Nacional de Antropología, Reforma y Gandhi s/n)

  • Mario Perez-Campa

    (Proyecto Cuicuilco, Instituto Nacionál de Antropología e Historia)

  • Kim B. Knight

    (University of California)

Abstract

Step change A report of human footprints preserved in 40,000-year-old volcanic ash in Mexico is challenged in an online Brief Communication Arising. Announced to the press in July this year, if true the discovery would overturn current theories on the timing of human migration to the Americas (believed to be some 30,000 years later). Argon dating and palaeomagnetic analysis show that the surface on which the prints were found is about 1.3 million years old, making it unlikely that these were human as they would then pre-date the appearance of Homo sapiens in Africa by over a million years.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul R. Renne & Joshua M. Feinberg & Michael R. Waters & Joaquin Arroyo-Cabrales & Patricia Ochoa-Castillo & Mario Perez-Campa & Kim B. Knight, 2005. "Age of Mexican ash with alleged ‘footprints’," Nature, Nature, vol. 438(7068), pages 7-8, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:438:y:2005:i:7068:d:10.1038_nature04425
    DOI: 10.1038/nature04425
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature04425
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature04425?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:438:y:2005:i:7068:d:10.1038_nature04425. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.