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Scientists usually do not date a footprint impression directly. They first place the trackway in its geological setting, establish the relative order of the layers, then date suitable ash, minerals, organic remains or sediment grains associated with the track-bearing layer. Those results may date the layer itself, the time it was buried, or an event that brackets when the animal walked there. Independent methods are compared to produce a defensible age range.
What a fossil trackway records
A fossil trackway is a trace fossil: evidence of an organism’s activity rather than preserved bones, teeth or other body parts. The Natural History Museum in London defines a trackway as a sequence of consecutive footfalls made by the same animal. A single footprint is one trace; a connected series can reveal stride length, walking direction, speed, group movement and other behavior.
The National Park Service uses “geologic context” for the rock or sediment deposit in which a fossil occurs. That context is central to dating. A track’s age is inferred from the layer and events connected to it, not simply from the shape of the footprint.
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How footprints become fossils
Tracks form when an animal steps on a surface with the right balance of moisture and firmness. Ground that is too hard may record little detail. Sediment that is too soft can slump, fill in or distort the print. A later layer of mud, ash or other sediment can bury the impression quickly enough to protect it.
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The preserved feature may be an impression on the original surface, a transmitted undertrack in sediment below it, or a natural cast created when later material fills the hollow. These forms can occur together in one site. The layer containing the visible print is therefore not always the exact surface on which the animal walked, and investigators document that relationship before attempting to date it.
Why the footprint itself is rarely the dated material
Dating techniques are selective. Radiometric methods work on particular radioactive elements in suitable minerals or rocks. Radiocarbon dating measures carbon in suitable once-living material. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) measures the last time certain mineral grains were exposed to sunlight. A mineralized impression made in ordinary sediment does not automatically contain the material required by any of those methods.
Instead, researchers ask what event a sample represents and how it relates physically to the tracks. An ash bed immediately above a track surface can provide a younger boundary; an ash bed below it can provide an older boundary. Organic matter deposited with the sediment may date the depositional interval, while quartz grains can record when they were last exposed to light before burial. The result is an age constraint on the track-making or burial history, not necessarily a direct measurement of the animal’s footfall.
The dating workflow, from outcrop to age estimate
1. Map the track-bearing layer and its setting
Field teams record the exact bed containing the tracks, its thickness, grain size, sedimentary structures, moisture-related features, and contacts with layers above and below. They document whether a print is a surface impression, undertrack or cast, and whether erosion or later movement has disturbed the deposit.
This work reconstructs the environment in which the animal walked: a lake margin, floodplain, dune field, tidal flat or another setting. It also identifies samples that can be tied to the same depositional sequence. Without that context, a precise-looking laboratory date could belong to an unrelated event.
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2. Establish relative order
Relative dating places events in sequence but does not state how many years ago they occurred. In an undisturbed sedimentary succession, lower layers are generally older than layers above them. A track surface sealed by an overlying bed is older than that sealing bed; a layer beneath the surface is older if the sequence has not been overturned or reworked.
Geologists correlate distinctive beds across an exposure or between sites. Suitable index fossils can help match layers of similar age where the same organisms were widespread and existed for a comparatively short interval. Correlation narrows the possible interval for a trackway, but it remains an ordering and matching tool rather than a numerical clock.
3. Find material that can supply a numerical age
Numerical, or absolute, dating expresses an estimated age in years. Researchers inspect the track-bearing sequence for materials whose chemistry or physical history fits a validated method. A sample may be collected from the exact layer, from a bed directly above or below it, or from sediment that demonstrably filled the prints.
The key question is not “Can this sample be dated?” but “What event does this sample date, and is that event demonstrably connected to the tracks?” A sample transported from another location, reworked from an older deposit or contaminated after burial can produce an age that is accurate for the sample but misleading for the trackway.
4. Apply the method appropriate to the material
| Approach | Material measured | What the result dates | Typical relationship to a trackway | Important qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stratigraphic superposition | Rock and sediment layers | Relative order of deposition | Places the track surface before or after neighboring beds | Assumes the sequence has not been overturned, faulted or reworked |
| Biostratigraphic correlation | Index fossils in associated strata | Relative age compared with other occurrences | Matches the track-bearing bed to a broader fossil succession | Requires suitable fossils and reliable correlation |
| Radiometric dating | Appropriate minerals, rocks or volcanic ash/tuff | Crystallization or another isotope-specific event | Dates an ash bed or mineral layer that brackets the tracks | Only particular minerals and geological events are suitable |
| Radiocarbon dating | Suitable once-living material such as seeds | Time since carbon exchange ceased, within the method’s usable range | Can date organic remains deposited in or alongside the track layer | Water chemistry, contamination and reworking can bias the relationship |
| Optically stimulated luminescence | Quartz or other suitable sediment grains | Last exposure of the grains to sunlight | Can constrain when footprint-bearing sediment was buried | Often supplies a minimum or depositional constraint rather than a direct footprint age |
Radiometric dates on ash and minerals
Volcanic ash or tuff layers are especially useful when they lie close to a track-bearing bed and their stratigraphic relationship is clear. Radiometric analysis dates suitable minerals formed during the volcanic event. If the ash lies below the tracks, its age can establish that the footprints are younger than the eruption. If it lies above them, it can establish that the prints are older than the covering eruption.
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Other radiometric systems can date minerals in rocks, but the method, isotope system and geological event must be specified. A date on a detrital grain may indicate when that grain crystallized, not when the sediment was deposited. Scientists therefore avoid treating every mineral age as the age of the trackway.
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Radiocarbon on organic remains
Radiocarbon dating is applied to suitable material that was once alive. Seeds, charcoal or other organic remains may have been deposited at the same time as the sediment that preserved the tracks. The age then constrains that depositional interval, provided the material has not been reworked or affected by an unusual carbon source.
Water plants require special care because they can acquire dissolved carbon from water rather than directly from the atmosphere. That carbon may make a sample appear older than the event being studied. The material’s ecology and carbon pathway are therefore part of the age interpretation.
Optically stimulated luminescence
OSL estimates when mineral grains, commonly quartz, were last exposed to sunlight. Burial shields the grains from light and allows a signal to accumulate. Measuring that signal can constrain when the sediment was deposited or last reset. If the grains were incompletely exposed before burial, or if later disturbance moved them, the result may not represent a single clean depositional event.
White Sands: a multi-method example
The human footprints at White Sands National Park illustrate why scientists combine independent evidence. In a report dated October 5, 2023, the U.S. Geological Survey said two additional approaches supported an earlier estimate of 21,000–23,000 years for the footprints.
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Seeds and the potential old-carbon problem
Earlier work used radiocarbon measurements on seeds of the aquatic plant Ruppia cirrhosa found in the impressions. Because aquatic plants can draw carbon from dissolved carbon in water, researchers recognized a possible old-age bias: the seeds might inherit carbon that does not reflect atmospheric carbon at the time they grew.
Terrestrial pollen as an independent check
The follow-up study dated terrestrial conifer pollen from the same layers. The pollen ages were statistically identical to the corresponding seed ages. The USGS report says researchers isolated approximately 75,000 pollen grains for each dated sample. Pollen also helped reconstruct the broader environment when the footprints were made, rather than serving only as a number on a laboratory report.
Quartz luminescence
OSL measurements on quartz from the footprint-bearing layers indicated a minimum age of about 21,500 years. This result addressed a different physical signal from radiocarbon and tied the age to the burial history of the sediment.
Taken together, radiocarbon evidence from seeds and terrestrial pollen plus luminescence evidence from quartz supported the 21,000–23,000-year range. The agreement does not make the range universal for other sites; it shows how independent materials can test one another when their geological relationships are understood.
“We were confident in our original ages, as well as the strong geologic, hydrologic, and stratigraphic evidence, but we knew that independent chronologic control was critical.” — Kathleen Springer, USGS research geologist and co-lead author
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Jeff Pigati, the other USGS co-lead author, said the team’s targeted methodology addressed concerns that the original dating was not sufficient for such an extraordinary claim. David Wahl, a USGS research geographer and co-author, noted that the pollen also clarified the environmental context of the footprints.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How scientists turn several dates into one interpretation
Researchers distinguish a point estimate from a constraint. A date on a bed below the tracks is an older boundary; a date on a bed above them is a younger boundary. A sample within the track-bearing sediment may approximate the depositional age, but only if its origin and burial history are secure. Several results can therefore define an interval without any single measurement being “the footprint date.”
Teams compare laboratory uncertainties, stratigraphic position, possible contamination, reworking and the physical meaning of each method. Agreement among methods that measure different materials is stronger than repeated measurements of one potentially biased material. Disagreement is not simply discarded: it prompts checks for mixed grains, old carbon, disturbed layers or an incorrect assumption about which event a sample records.
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Common mistakes when interpreting trackway ages
- “Scientists carbon-date the footprints.” Usually they date organic remains associated with the track layer, not the mineral impression itself.
- “A numerical result is automatically the age of the walk.” The result may date crystallization, plant growth, burial or another event that only brackets the walk.
- “Older material in the layer proves an older trackway.” Reworked grains, seeds or fossils can predate the sediment that contains them.
- “One technique works for every site.” Methods require specific materials and suitable time ranges; a site without datable ash, organic remains or reset quartz may rely mainly on relative chronology.
- “More decimal places mean more certainty.” Precision in a laboratory measurement cannot correct for a poor geological relationship or an unrecognized carbon or sediment history.
What uncertainty should—and should not—be claimed
There is no universal error range for fossil trackway ages. Uncertainty is site-specific and depends on the method, sample quality, stratigraphic control and assumptions about disturbance. A responsible report states whether an age is a minimum, maximum, bracket or estimated depositional interval, and identifies the material and event being dated.
Readers should look for the complete chain: the track-bearing layer, the sample’s exact position, the physical process measured, the assumptions tested and the independent checks. A narrow range is meaningful only when those links are documented.
A practical checklist for evaluating a published age
- Identify whether the feature is a true sequence of footprints and whether it is an impression, undertrack or cast.
- Find the described geological layer and determine how it relates to beds above and below.
- Check what material was measured: ash, mineral, seed, pollen, quartz or something else.
- Ask which event the method dates and whether that event brackets or approximates the track-making event.
- Look for evidence that the sample was reworked, contaminated or affected by an unusual carbon source.
- Compare independent methods and note whether they agree within their stated uncertainties.
- Read the final wording carefully: “minimum age,” “between,” and “approximately” are different claims.
The most credible trackway ages are therefore geological inferences supported by several connected observations. The footprints establish behavior; the surrounding deposits establish sequence; suitable samples provide numerical constraints; and independent methods determine whether the proposed age survives critical testing.
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