What the footprints do tell us is that people were present here during a specific climatic and environmental phase — the Last Glacial Maximum and its immediate aftermath — and that they were engaging with the landscape in ways consistent with people who understood it.

They were moving efficiently along the shore.

They were in the company of children, which implies a level of environmental security inconsistent with purely exploratory travel through an unknown and dangerous landscape.

The presence of children in these trackways is, in its own understated way, one of the most powerful pieces of evidence for established human presence: you do not bring children on first contact with a new and hostile environment.

You bring them when the landscape is known and reasonably safe.

What The Migration Models Must Now Account For