Fossilized footprints are rare enough on our planet, and therefore are of particular interest to archaeologists. After all, ancient fossils can reveal secrets about the ancestors of people, and about what happened on our planet in the prehistoric period. This review contains an incredible dozen of fossils that will be of interest even to people far from scientific research.
1. Laetoli traces
In 1976, anthropologist Mary Leakey discovered the oldest human footprints in the world in Laetoli, Tanzania. They were squeezed out in a layer of volcanic ash 3.6 million years old. Scientists attribute these footprints to Australopithecus Afar, an ancient hominid whose remains were found in the same sedimentary layer. The subsequent eruption of the volcano buried under itself and preserved these prints for centuries. Initially, scientists believed that the footprints belong to two people (more precisely, their ancestors), but now it is believed that they belong to four different Australopithecines.
Mysterious footprints: Laetoli prints.
These footprints are the earliest example of a hominid erectus, which was a real leap in evolution. The legs of Australopithecus afar were more like the legs of modern humans than monkeys. However, their average stride length was significantly shorter (long lower limbs only developed in Homo erectus).
2. Traces of the devil
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On the western slope of the Roccamonfina volcano in southern Italy, one can find the "Devil's Footprints" - ancient footprints in a frozen volcanic stream approximately 385,000 to 325,000 years old. These footprints were left by humanoids who descended from the volcano along the steep slope, and even rare handprints were preserved where they rested on the slope for balance. No one knows who made them, but scientists suspect that the most "likely candidate" is Homo erectus, or Heidelberg Man.
Mysterious footprints: devil prints.
3. Traces of Eve
The footprints, which were found in 1997 on the desert west coast of South Africa, are the oldest known fossilized footprints of Homo sapiens. They date back to 117,000 years old and are called "footprints of Eve". Interestingly, they are almost indistinguishable from the footprints of modern humans, except that the hominid who left them was about 140 centimeters tall (moreover, it is believed that it was an adult).
Mysterious footprints: Eve's prints.
4. Footprints in Hapisburg
In 2014, a storm on an English beach exposed the oldest human footprints outside Africa. The prints are 850,000 years old, that is, they are half a million years older than the most ancient people (as scientists previously assumed) who began to populate Europe. Experts believe they were made by some of the human predecessors. At that time, England was connected to continental Europe by a land isthmus, and the climate in it was similar to modern Scandinavian.
Mysterious footprints: footprints in Hapisburg.
This raises questions about when clothing, shelter, and fire were actually invented. Also, these prints change the whole picture of how humanity migrated from Africa. Experts now believe that hominids may have colonized Britain as many as ten separate times.
5. Hunters of Turkana
In 2009, researchers discovered human footprints near Kenya's Lake Turkana, which date back 1.5 million years. The footprints were too old to belong to modern humans, so the researchers thought they belonged to Homo erectus, who are considered the first hominids with long legs and short arms - that is, adapted for vertical walking.
Mysterious footprints: prints near the Kenyan lake Turkana.
The presence of imprints of several males nearby indicates that these hominids were engaged in joint work, presumably hunting. The researchers examined other animal tracks in the area and determined that there used to be meadows near the lake. Herbivores usually moved in a straight line from grass to water, while humans, like predators, lived along the coast. It is likely that they were more carnivorous than modern humans.
6. Footprints on Calvert Island
The Calvert Island footprints in British Columbia may be the oldest human footprints in North America. Their age is 13,200 years, and they belonged to three individuals, which, according to scientists, were a family. Studying the prints is extremely difficult as they are in the intertidal zone. More research needs to be done to confirm the authenticity of their age, as neighboring breeds date back only 2000 years.
Mysterious footprints: prints on Calvert Island, British Columbia.
However, previous radiocarbon analysis showed the tracks to be 13,000 years old, which is evidence that North America was first inhabited along the Pacific coast. Previously, experts believed that people were settling south through an ice-free corridor east of the Rocky Mountains.
7. Hohokam foot prints
In 2015, a construction team unearthed fossilized ancient footprints near Tucson, USA. Their age is 2500 - 3500 years old and they belong to people from the Hohokam culture settlement (which is considered to be transitional between hunter-gatherers and agriculture). The prints belong to men, women, children and dogs. They were pressed deep into the soft soil of an irrigated field that was subsequently flooded.
Mysterious footprints: Hohokam footprints.
There is now debate as to whether irrigation in agriculture is Hohokam's own invention or whether this technique first appeared in Mesoamerica. Some even believe that this settlement is migrants from Mexico. Others disagree with this theory, pointing out that there is no evidence for ancient irrigated agriculture in Mesoamerica.
8. Imprints near the mountain of God
In the shadow of a Tanzanian volcano, which the Maasai call the "Mountain of God", researchers have discovered 400 fossilized ancient footprints that date back 19,000 years. Some of the footprints show that people were jogging, other people who left these footprints had broken fingers, and still others belong to mothers with children. The researchers initially thought that the footprints were made in ash that fell from the sky after the volcanic eruption. This would mean that the prints are 120,000 years old, but later revised their age.
Mysterious footprints: prints near the mountain of God.
9. Stone Age fishermen
5,000-year-old footprints of two people on the island of Lolland in Denmark show how ancient people migrated along the sea and faced its destructive power. The prints show the lives of two Stone Age fishermen who set fish traps in the shallows. Traces also indicate that fishermen were forced to enter the icy Baltic water in an attempt to save their traps from flooding (while the prints were made, the Baltic Sea level rose sharply due to the melting of glaciers in Northern Europe).
Mysterious footprints: Stone Age fishermen prints.
10. Footprints near Willandra Lake
In 2003, local aborigines found the oldest known footprints in Australia. Found among the dunes of the dry lakes of Willandra, the prints date back 20,000 years. They are the largest collection of Pleistocene human footprints in the world (almost 700 footprints have been found, 400 of which are grouped into 23 chains). The smallest details have survived: the dirt that seeped between the toes, the hole from the spear that the man was leaning on and squiggles that could have been drawn by a child.
Mysterious Footprints: Footprints near Willandra Lake.
