Scientists from the Universities of Arizona and Bournemouth, National Park Service and the US Geological Survey studied footprints that were left in soft mud in New Mexico.. They came to the conclusion that people lived here until 23 thousand years ago, according to Naked science.

The question of when the first settlers appeared in America is far from resolved.. The dates of the settlement of the continents are constantly revised, some of the researchers say that America was inhabited 33 thousand years ago.

According to other works, all the indigenous inhabitants of both continents descended from the same population from Siberia, which migrated there through Beringia no earlier than 23 thousand years ago, at the peak of the last glacial maximum, when the Bering Strait was frozen.

In a new study, scientists studied footprints that were left in the soft mud of Lake Otero. In their opinion, people lived in New Mexico until 23 thousand years ago, and in the interior of the mainland appeared even earlier..

Traces were radiocarbon dated. For one part, the age was 23 thousand years, for the other - 21 thousand.. The size of the footprints indicates that they were mostly left by adolescents and children, but there are also adult prints.. Traces of fossil animals were also found in the lake: a mammoth, a giant sloth, a dire wolf and birds.

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In Morocco, evidence of the oldest garment making has been found.

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Earlier, scientists from the United States and Spain said that before the domestication of fire, ancient people used hot springs for cooking.. This, in their opinion, is indicated by traces of hydrothermal springs found in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania..