Researchers had been confident from early in the analysis that the trackways were made by people — the anatomical details of the impressions, the biomechanical evidence of human gait, and the absence of any alternative explanation for the evidence were convincing well before the dating controversy arose.

What remains in ongoing discussion: the precise age of the footprint horizons, which depends on the accuracy of the dating methods and their application to the specific sedimentary context of the White Sands site.

Geochronology is a field in which precision improves with additional data, and additional data continues to be collected.

The general age range — a human presence during the Last Glacial Maximum, broadly in the range of 21,000 to 23,000 years — has substantial support, but the specific figures will likely be refined as research continues.

What the scientific community is watching: other sites that might provide additional evidence of human presence during the Last Glacial Maximum or earlier.

If White Sands represents a population that was already established in the American interior at this time, that population had to have come from somewhere and had to have left traces in other places.