Ancient footprints show earliest evidence of modern foot anatomy and walking
Thursday, February 26, 2009 - 14:07
in Paleontology & Archaeology
The George Washington University professor Brian Richmond and his colleagues have discovered a set of 1.5 million-year-old human ancestor footprints in Kenya that show the earliest direct evidence of a modern human style of upright walking called bipedalism. The discovery of ancient hominin footprints is an incredibly rare event, and the new prints are the second oldest in the world after the 3.7-million year-old prints in Laetoli, Tanzania, making this one of the most important discoveries in recent years regarding the evolution of human walking. For the first time ever, research establishes a methodology for three-dimensional analysis and comparison of ancient human footprints...