Man could appear on Earth much earlier than modern science believes …
It is generally accepted that the first upright mammals - Australopithecines - appeared on Earth about 4.2 million years ago. Then they gave way to a skilled man (homo habilis), and those were replaced by a homo erectus. Finally, it was the turn of the Neanderthal and Homo sapience.
More details on the evolution of bipedal mammals can be seen in the diagram below.
So, judging by the given time intervals, even 5 million years ago there could be no question of any mammals, not only capable of thinking, but even just walking on two legs or making a simple weapon out of stone and branches. At the moment, this is the official position of archeology, confirmed by numerous studies and finds on display in museums around the world.
But among the skeletons of Neanderthals, the simplest tools of labor of the first descendants of humans, the most ancient prints on pottery and other artifacts, there are also such finds, the existence of which science still cannot explain and the official recognition of which threatens to turn the entire historical picture of the world.
One of these finds is an imprint of the sole of a boot, found on a stone in a mine in Nevada, USA. In October 1922, engineer and geologist John Reid was examining rocks in one of the mines, when he suddenly noticed an unusual stone in front of him, on which a part of a human boot was clearly imprinted. Everything would be fine - humanity has been wearing shoes for at least several thousand years, but only a preliminary analysis of the fossil showed that its age is at least 5 million years. It turns out that long before the officially recognized appearance on the planet of upright human ancestors, someone wearing shoes stepped into the ground, which then hardened and turned into stone.
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The find was announced in the newspapers, which immediately caused heated scientific discussions. The first thing that specialists paid attention to was the age of the fossil. It was not clear why John Reid and the scientists who conducted the study gave finds exactly 5 million years ago, although the stone was found in the rock of the Triassic period, which took place about 200 million years ago. However, this remark only intensified the controversy: even the assumption that 200 million years ago - at a time when the era of the dinosaurs had not even reached its heyday - there was someone who could wear shoes on the planet seemed insane. Further, the scientific community pointed to the ovoid shape of the lower part of the "boot", which is characteristic of natural formations of iron ore nodules. Interestingly, the nodules found elsewhere in their shape did indeed resemble a "shoe print from Nevada."
Iron ore nodule.
In addition, if you look closely at the photo, it becomes clear that it is impossible to accurately determine the initial shape of the "boot" - its front part could be anything: it could continue for some time or end after a centimeter.
The upper part of the boot could be anything.
Determining the size of the boot, as well as the gender and age of the creature to which it belonged, would have been helped by a sequence of steps, but it was not found.
However, what most casts doubt on the veracity of this story is the lack of accurate information from John Reid about the location of the stone print.
It would seem that the theory of the artificial origin of the "fingerprint" is completely refuted, mainly due to the lack of facts. However, a few years later, macro photography along the perimeter of the sole revealed many grooves that look like they were stitches from threads that hold the sole to the top of the boot. The controversy about the Nevada boot print flared up with renewed vigor, and it would seem that John Reid could simply give the stone print to specialists for repeated analyzes and studies, but he did not. The public was given only a photograph of the print and an extract from the Rockefeller Research Institute, where the main study of the find was carried out.
Disputes about a shoe print from Nevada from 5 to 200 million years old continue to this day, but the overwhelming majority of experts are sure that this print on a stone really strongly resembles the shape of a shoe, but still has a natural origin. And the thread marks are just traces of water penetrating into the cracks in the stone. But the main thing that prevents the case from getting off the ground is the absence of any data on the current location of the stone print. Perhaps its creators simply did not want to show the "find" to the public, so as not to be completely exposed. Perhaps the shoe print from Nevada was deliberately not shown to the world: after all, if it is real, then the whole idea of mankind about the history of our civilization, the origin of man, and, perhaps, life is wrong.