ITHACA, NEW YORK—According to a statement released by Cornell University, a team of researchers led by Daron Duke of Far Western Anthropological Research Group has identified 88 human footprints dating to the Ice Age on the salt flats of the Air Force’s Utah Testing and Training Range. After spotting two visible trackways, the archaeologists used ground-penetrating radar to reveal many more "ghost tracks," some of which they excavated. Duke said that these excavated prints belonged to barefoot adults and children between the ages of five and 12. They had walked through shallow water, and layers of mud beneath the sand preserved their prints intact. Because there have not been wetland conditions in this part of the Great Salt Lake Desert in at least 10,000 years, Duke said, the researchers believe the footprints may be more than 12,000 years old. To read about the oldest known fossilized footprints in the Americas that were recently unearthed in the New Mexico desert, go to "Ghost Tracks of White Sands."
