The biomechanical analysis of the White Sands tracks has produced some of the most interesting behavioral inferences from the site.

Human walking gait leaves characteristic signatures in the pressure distribution of a footprint — the heel strikes first, then weight rolls forward along the lateral edge of the foot toward the ball, then transfers to the toes for the push-off that propels the next step.

This pattern is preserved in the depth and shape of well-preserved footprints in a way that allows researchers to distinguish normal walking from running, uphill from downhill movement, loaded from unloaded carrying, and even to estimate walking speed.

Stride length — the distance between successive footprints of the same foot — is a function of both leg length and walking speed.

For individuals of known stature and walking at a comfortable pace, stride length falls within predictable ranges.

The stride length measurements from White Sands trackways have been used to estimate the general body size of the people who made them, with results consistent with anatomically modern humans of the size range common in the late Pleistocene.