2026-10-14 アリゾナ大学
Kathleen Springer and Jeffrey Pigati collect samples for environmental change analysis from a trench in the White Sands playa.Jessica Tierney
＜関連情報＞
- https://news.arizona.edu/news/footprints-white-sand-humans-experienced-abrupt-environmental-shifts-during-last-ice-age
- https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aeh0707
ホワイトサンズでは、最終氷期最盛期に人類が急激な環境変化を経験した Humans experienced abrupt environmental changes at White Sands during the Last Glacial Maximum
Kathleen B. Springer, Jeffrey S. Pigati, Jessica E. Tierney, Jeffrey S. Honke, […] , and Matthew R. Bennett
Science Advances Published:14 Oct 2026
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aeh0707
Abstract
Expanded excavations at White Sands National Park have unearthed 20 stratigraphic horizons containing in situ human footprints, megafaunal trackways, and linear features created by travois. Advances in radiocarbon dating of conifer pollen, combined with ages of aquatic seeds, refines the chronology of the footprint-bearing sequence to between 23.5 and 21.7 thousand years ago (ka). Biomarker, pollen, and stratigraphic evidence indicate a complete overturning of the environment from a perennial lake to a playa and capture a large aridification episode coincident with Dansgaard-Oeschger event 2 at 23.2 ka, which shrank pluvial Lake Otero and allowed people to traverse the former shoreline area for nearly two millennia. This well-dated and highly resolved paleoclimate record provides compelling evidence that humans in North America experienced marked environmental changes during the Last Glacial Maximum.
