{"id":199,"date":"2009-03-05T13:25:45","date_gmt":"2009-03-05T17:25:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/?p=199"},"modified":"2009-07-10T16:19:01","modified_gmt":"2009-07-10T20:19:01","slug":"in-the-news-ancient-footprints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/humanspark\/topics\/human-evolution\/in-the-news-ancient-footprints\/199\/","title":{"rendered":"In the News: Ancient Footprints"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Footprint\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Anthropologists recently announced they\u2019ve discovered the first example of footprints from the early human species Homo erectus<\/em>. The trail of prints uncovered in Kenya were made by feet remarkably like ours, but 1.5 million years ago.<\/p>\n

Unlike the 3.75-million-year-old footprints found in Tanzania and attributed to Australopithecus afarensis<\/em> (the same species as Lucy), these trails are markedly different from the tracks of apes. All of the toes are parallel and relatively short and there\u2019s an arch. This anatomy implies a bipedal species that had a similar gait to that of modern humans. Footprint trails like this one provide a rare glimpse of our ancient ancestors\u2019 soft tissues \u2013 as opposed to the fossilized bones we usually rely on to answer questions about their bodies.<\/p>\n

Check out the abstract of the research<\/a> published in Science<\/em>.
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These articles provide more information about the latest discovery:<\/p>\n