Humans experienced abrupt environmental changes at White Sands during the Last Glacial Maximum
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.
Authors
- Thomas M. Urban (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6246-6717)
- Sally Christine Reynolds (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6313-6405)
- Vincent Santucci (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5608-677X)
- Edward A. Jolie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3689-243X)
- Matthew R. Bennett (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3063-8844)
- Gonzalo Jiménez‐Moreno (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7185-8686)
- Daniel Odess (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2391-8175)
- David F. Bustos (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0309-7632)
- Jeffrey S. Honke (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4357-9297)
- Jessica E. Tierney (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9080-9289)
- Jeffrey S. Pigati (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5843-6219)
- Kathleen B. Springer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2404-0264)
- Patrick J. Martinez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4800-154X)
- Alison J. Smith (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-2933-7268)
- Abigail Hunt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-1940-4589)
Institutions
- United States Geological Survey (US)
- National Park Service (US)
- University of Arizona (US)
- University of Alaska Fairbanks (US)
- Kent State University (US)
- Universidad de Granada (ES)
- Cornell University (US)
- Denver Federal Center (US)
- Arizona State Museum (US)
- Bournemouth University (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science Advances
- Published
- 2026-10-14
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aeh0707
- Primary Topic
- Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Western National Parks Association
- U.S. Geological Survey
- National Park Service
- Arts and Humanities Research Council