New Discovery Challenges Long-Held Beliefs About Human Migration to the Americas
Humans are believed to have started migrating out of Africa around 100,000 years ago, with the Americas being one of the last continents to be settled. The early pioneers crossed the Bering land bridge, which once connected Siberia to North America, during the Pleistocene ice age when sea levels were lower.
For years, scientists believed that humans only reached the Americas after the ice sheets blocking their path melted, around 16,500 years ago. However, new evidence discovered in the form of ancient fossil footprints suggests that humans may have arrived thousands of years earlier, challenging the long-held theories about the timing of human migration into the Americas.