# North America’s oldest footprints tell a story of drought and survival

Source: [Earth.com](https://www.earth.com/science/north-americas-oldest-footprints-tell-a-story-of-drought-and-survival/) · 2026-11-07 · Earth & Climate
Page: https://themorning.science/story/north-america-s-oldest-footprints-tell-a-story-of-drought-and-survival-78528b71ea2952d7
Kind: research · Impact: low

## In brief

- Ancient footprints at White Sands in New Mexico date to the last ice age.
- The footprint makers watched a lake shrink into a flat, salty mudflat called a playa.
- The source article is truncated, so further details about the findings are not available here.

## Why it matters

The footprints suggest ice-age landscapes could change noticeably within a single lifetime, challenging the idea that they barely changed across generations.

## Coverage

- [North America’s oldest footprints tell a story of drought and survival](https://www.earth.com/science/north-americas-oldest-footprints-tell-a-story-of-drought-and-survival/) — Earth.com, 2026-11-07

Tags: paleontology, ice-age, climate, new-mexico, footprints

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Brief generated by AI (claude-haiku-5-5) from the reporting listed under Coverage. Headlines belong to their publishers. The Morning Science – https://themorning.science