FOOTPRINTS

When I first read this story I tried to imagine who among my small group of close friends would be silly…I mean willing to demonstrate the hypothesised walking gait of Homo erectus (courtesy of the new footprint finds) in comparison to other hominids, chimps and modern humans.

I made the mistake of saying I would record this act, upload the footage on YouTube and place right here on this very blog…yeah, really kicked myself in the head there didn’t I? So needless to say, none of my friends opted for the experience, not even George. Next time I’ll just strategically place a few hidden cameras…yes, it is all very big brotheresque around here.

So, new footprints in Kenya! Yay!!!

Studies of the new finds suggest that the individuals who left them were morphologically very similar to modern humans. Standing approximately 5 foot 9 inches high, with a size 9 arched feet indicating better bipedal mobility, anthropologists believe that the prints, dated to 1.5MYA probably belonged to Homo erectus.

Researchers suggest that this provides further credit to claims that the evolution of the feet for bipedal purposes was an essential element to “becoming human” (and let’s not nit pick at that useless term either). So, yes, these are the earliest footprints in existence belonging to a species of the Homo genus (probably, anyway), but are by no means the earliest fossilised hominid footprints recovered from the fossil record. Laetoli still holds that crown, believed to have been left by Australopithecus afarensis, some 3.6 million years old.