# Terminal Pleistocene epoch human footprints from the Pacific coast of Canada

> About 13,000 years ago, at least three people, one of them probably a child, walked barefoot across a muddy shore on Canada’s Pacific coast. Archaeologists digging under a beach on Calvert Island found 29 of their footprints pressed into an ancient clay soil, read their size, toes and slips, and told them apart from bear tracks. The prints are among the oldest signs of people on this coast at the end of the last ice age.

Summary by Kersey Lawrence, Original Wisdom. Updated 9 November 2026. Page: https://www.originalwisdom.com/tracking-literature/2018-mclaren-fedje-terminal-pleistocene-epoch-human/

## Citation and access

- **Authors:** Duncan McLaren, Daryl Fedje, Angela Dyck, Quentin Mackie, Alisha Gauvreau and Jenny Cohen
- **Year published:** 2018
- **Journal or source:** PLOS ONE
- **Full citation:** McLaren, D., Fedje, D., Dyck, A., Mackie, Q., Gauvreau, A. and Cohen, J. 2018. Terminal Pleistocene epoch human footprints from the Pacific coast of Canada. PLOS ONE 13(3): e0193522.
- **DOI:** 10.1371/journal.pone.0193522
- **Access status:** Open access (CC BY 4.0)
- **PDF:** https://www.originalwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/2018_McLaren_and_Fedje_etal_terminal-pleistocene-epoch-human-footprints.pdf

## Tags

- **Species:** Humans
- **Region:** North America > Canada
- **Tracking:** Track measurements; Track photographs; Tracking; Tracks; Tracks and signs identification
- **Methods and technology:** Descriptive statistics; Minimum number of individuals (MNI)
- **Data type:** New field data
- **Observer qualification:** Reported but not validated
- **Discipline:** Anthropology; Human tracking
- **Year published:** 2018

## Detailed keywords

- **Species:** Studied: humans, from 29 footprints left by at least three people (one possibly a child) about 13,000 years ago. Compared with: black bear and grizzly bear hind paw tracks, the only tracks of large land mammals in the area today that resemble human tracks (the paper gives no scientific names). No non-human tracks were found in the excavated area. Plants: shore pine (Pinus contorta) wood on the track surface and pressed into the base of the tracks; Pacific crab apple (Malus) seed, alder (Alnus sp.), Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) and other conifer wood in later layers. Microfossils: terrestrial amoebae (Nebella and Quadrulella spp.), sponge spicules and diatoms (including Coscinodiscus sp.). Modern sandpiper tracks appear in one photograph.
- **Location and habitat:** Meay Channel I archaeological site (EjTa-4), northern Calvert Island, Central Coast of British Columbia, Canada. Upper intertidal zone of a protected sand beach, with the tracks impressed into a 13,000-year-old clay soil (paleosol) 87 to 98 cm below the excavation datum (Table 1), beneath beach sands and gravels. The region today is temperate rainforest (western hemlock, Sitka spruce, western redcedar, shore pine, yellow cedar) with sphagnum bogs. Sea level here was 2 to 3 m lower than today between 14,000 and 11,000 years ago.
- **Topics:** ancient human footprints; late Pleistocene (ice age) human presence on the Pacific coast; coastal migration route into the Americas; telling human tracks from bear tracks; track preservation (true track, undertrack, overtrack, track surface, sediment displacement rims); over-trampling; foot slippage on clay; minimum number of track makers from track size clusters; bare feet versus shoes (toe drag marks); track orientation and congregation sites; site formation processes; sea level history; stone tools; Indigenous participation (Heiltsuk and Wuikinuxv First Nations).
- **Statistics or models:** Descriptive only: footprint length and width plotted in a scattergram (three size clusters); a rose diagram of track directions (azimuths); radiocarbon dates calibrated with Calib 7.0.2 and the IntCal13 curve. Foot sizes converted to modern US shoe sizes with a Brannock device chart. No statistical tests. Inconsistencies: the text gives one Stratum VII date as “2,757 to 2,764 cal BP” (younger and older ends reversed); the first track is described as 60 cm below the beach surface in the text, while Table 2 gives its samples at 134 cm below datum (different reference points, not explained). The conclusion calls one of the three people a juvenile, while the shoe sizes given include two junior sizes (junior 8, and junior 1 “or a woman’s size 3”).
- **Data type:** New field data: subsurface testing in 2014 (first track found) and a 4 x 2 m excavation in the 2015 and 2016 field seasons. 18 of the 29 tracks had full length and width measurements; 17 radiocarbon dates.

## Synopsis

### 1. What they did

Very little is known about people living on the Pacific coast of Canada at the end of the last ice age, although this coast is one of the routes people may have taken into the Americas. On Calvert Island, British Columbia, earlier work showed that sea level was only 2 to 3 metres lower than today between 14,000 and 11,000 years ago. So the shoreline of that time lies just under today’s beaches. The researchers dug test holes beneath the beach in front of an archaeological site (EjTa-4) to look for remains from that period.

- First find (2014). In a small test hole, they found a suspected human footprint about 60 cm below the beach, pressed into a light brown clay and filled with dark sand and gravel. Wood at the bottom of the print was radiocarbon dated.

- Excavation (2015 and 2016). They opened a 4 x 2 m area around the first test, digging by trowel layer by layer, and exposed the old ground surface the tracks were made in.

- Recording the tracks. They measured each footprint (length from heel to the second toe, and the width of the ball of the foot), noted which foot it was and its condition, measured its direction, and photographed it. Photos were digitally enhanced to make faint features easier to see.

- Dating and context. They dated wood and charcoal from the track surface, from the bottom of the prints and from the layers above, and studied the sediments, microfossils, wood and stone tools to work out how the site formed.

A field crew of archaeologists, representatives of the Heiltsuk and Wuikinuxv First Nations, and University of Victoria students did the work.

### 2. What they found

The tracks

- 29 human footprints were recorded, facing in different directions. Some were clear, with visible toes; others were faint.

- Many more partial, footprint-like hollows were seen, but repeated trampling had made them too unclear to record with confidence, so they are not counted.

- Several tracks had clear rims where the clay had been pushed sideways by the foot. Modern boot prints on the same beach form the same kind of rim after one tide.

- Pits from old tide pools and root disturbance had destroyed parts of the track surface, so most prints were in the northern part of the excavation.

Who made them

- 18 tracks could be fully measured. Their sizes fall into three clusters, suggesting at least three people. In modern US shoe sizes, these match about a junior 8, a junior 1 (or a woman’s 3), and a woman’s 8 to 9 (or a man’s 7 to 8).

- Visible toe marks suggest the people were barefoot. Track #4 showed no clear toes, but the enhanced photo revealed drag marks from the first and second toes, so this foot was probably bare too.

- Some prints were stretched where the walker slipped forward on the wet clay.

What the tracks show

- The prints do not form a line of steps (a trackway). They look more like a congregation site, where people gather around an activity.

- Most people were facing north to northwest, up the beach towards the vegetation line. Tracks #8 and #9 are a left and a right print side by side, as if someone stood with feet slightly apart, facing inland with their back to the prevailing wind.

Age

- Shore pine wood pressed into the bottom of the prints and lying on the track surface dates to between 13,317 and 12,633 years ago.

- The sand layer directly over the tracks gave mixed dates (12,640 to 5608 years ago), probably because roots and erosion disturbed it. A clay layer above it dates to about 12,850 to 12,750 years ago.

- Stone tools were found on the track surface, including flakes, cores, pebble tools and retouched tools.

### 3. What they concluded

- The footprints are certainly human: they show arches, balls, offset heels, and in some cases toes, surrounded by displacement rims.

- They date to the late Pleistocene, about 13,000 years ago (a conservative range of 13,317 to 12,633 years ago), and were left by at least three people, including one juvenile.

- The people may have stepped ashore from boats and walked up towards a drier activity area inland.

- This is evidence that people were living on the western edge of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet at the end of the last ice age, adding to growing evidence that early peoples travelled along this coast.

- The authors note a limitation: some dates in the layer over the tracks are outliers, because that layer was disturbed.

- Footprints are probably part of many archaeological sites but are missed because they are so easily lost. The authors stopped digging so the remaining tracks stay undisturbed for future researchers with better methods.

### 4. How tracking was or was not used

The whole study rests on tracks and signs identification of human footprints. The authors identified the tracks as human from the arch, the toes, the offset heel and the displacement rims. They ruled out bears, whose hind paw tracks are the only local large-mammal tracks resembling human ones: the prints had a clear arch, no claw marks, were not triangular, had the first or second toe longest rather than the third, and were narrower than bear tracks. No bear front tracks were found either. They also interpreted track size (number of people), toe drag marks (barefoot or shod), heel slippage, side-by-side left and right prints (standing still), and track direction. They used standard terms for track layers: true track, undertrack, overtrack, track surface and displacement rim. No trailing was done.

### 5. Tracker or observer certification

Reported but not validated. The field crew are described as “very familiar with bear footprints”, which they watch for to keep workers safe, but no tracking qualification or test of their skill is reported.

### 6. Other technologies, skills or innovations

- Digital enhancement of track photographs with the DStretch plugin for ImageJ (free software) made faint toes, heels and rims easier to see.

- Radiocarbon dating of wood and charcoal (accelerator mass spectrometry, University of California, Irvine).

- Microscope study of sediments, pollen, diatoms and other microfossils, and identification of wood from its cells.

- Targeting dig sites by a local sea level history.

- One track (#4) was lifted out on a block of sediment (pedestalled) and taken to the laboratory.

### 7. Implications for conservation (from the paper)

- The authors stopped excavating so the remaining tracks stay in place for future study with better methods.

- Tracks are probably present at many archaeological sites but are missed or not recognized because they are so short-lived.

### 8. Implications for tracking (Original Wisdom's observations)

_These are Original Wisdom's observations, not the authors'._

- The way the authors told human prints from bear hind prints (arch, claw marks, overall shape, which toe is longest, width) is the same reasoning a tracker uses in the field today.

- Comparing the ancient displacement rims with fresh boot prints on the same beach, one tide old, is a neat example of using today’s tracks to read old ones.

- The study shows how much tracks can say even without a trackway: how many people, their rough size, whether they were barefoot, whether they slipped, and which way they were facing.

## Cite this summary

Lawrence, K. 2026. Summary of: Terminal Pleistocene epoch human footprints from the Pacific coast of Canada (McLaren and Fedje et al., 2018). Original Wisdom, Tracking Literature. https://www.originalwisdom.com/tracking-literature/2018-mclaren-fedje-terminal-pleistocene-epoch-human/