Prehistoric Footprints

Pre-historic ape-men walked like us, a new research carried out at a UK university has claimed.

20:48 28 April 2016

A research conducted by archaeologists at Bournemouth University has found that prehistoric ape-men, living some three and a half years million years ago, walked like us. The discovery has great implications for fully understanding key aspects of subsequent early human evolution.

 

The study was based on a series of 3.66 million year old footprints from Laetoli in northern Tanzania.  Analyzing the data, researchers have succeeded in demonstrating that our distant ancestors developed a modern gait much earlier than has often been thought. Because of this, it would have been easier for them to survive, reproduce and adapt better than other rival types of ape-man that had not developed a modern gait.

 

Professor Bennett of Bournemouth University's Institute for Studies of Landscape and Human Evolution, said: “Our newly developed computer software has enabled us to increase the number of footprints we can identify. This gives us better insights into the range of individuals present, their sizes and their gaits. Understanding a range of footprints tells us more about a species and the variations within its population”