'The REAL Science of Groundhogs' for an early Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day is really tomorrow, but it's also Sunday, when I post my entertainment features, so I'm celebrating early with SciShow describing The REAL Science of Groundhogs.

Groundhogs are famous in North America for "predicting" when spring will come (and also that Bill Murray movie). But while they might make for terrible meteorologists, they actually play a valuable role in several other scientific fields.

Even though I am a paleontologist who studies the Pleistocene, I hadn't heard of the 16,000 year old stone tools from the Meadowcroft Rockshelter until I watched this video. That means I learned something new, making today a good day. That written, it's not a complete surprise, as I mentioned "Early peopling of the Americas steps closer to acceptance" as a runner-up in Weight loss drugs Science Magazine's Breakthrough of the Year for 2023. Science Magazine wrote the following about the discovery.

In 2021, researchers working in White Sands National Park in New Mexico announced a potentially paradigm shifting discovery: unmistakable human footprints, left on the muddy shore of an ancient lake as early as 21,000 to 23,000 years ago. The team based those dates on seeds from a grassy aquatic plant that were found in layers surrounding the footprints and dated by radiocarbon. But there was room for doubt, because the seeds could have absorbed ancient carbon from sediments dissolved in the lake water, boosting their measured age. So the White Sands team redated the footprints using pollen from land plants and quartz grains embedded in sediments between and below the tracks. The new dates line up perfectly with the original paper, they reported in October.

If the dates are correct, the prints were left at the peak of the last ice age, when glaciers covered Canada, suggesting humans must have made the journey into the Americas before those ice sheets formed.

The new work has persuaded some initial skeptics. Others still wonder whether wind or erosion might have deposited older sediments on top of the footprints, making them appear more ancient than they are. But all are eager for more clues about the White Sands people, such as a hearth or stone tools, which could confirm their presence as well as provide hints about their culture. This year’s redating could spark a re-evaluation of other contested sites and will likely send archaeologists racing to excavate other ice age sediments in search of confirmation—or even more surprises.

NOVA PBS Official uploaded a video about this finding, Humans May Have Lived in North America Earlier Than Thought.

Scattered seeds help reveal when ancient humans first left footprints in North America.

Ten thousand years earlier than the previous accepted date — wow!

I also learned new things about the importance of groundhogs in health research, including hepatitis B, but the gag referencing the Groundhog Day movie overshadowed them. Thanks to the pandemic, I already know what living in a time loop feels like.

Since there is no new episode of Saturday Night Live tonight, I plan on covering GRAMMY Awards tomorrow. Stay tuned.