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The Earliest Human Footprints

Projects:
IGERT: Dynamics of behavioral shifts in human evolution:...
Institution:
George Washington University
Primary Strategic Goal:
Discovery: Foster research that will advance the frontiers of knowledge, emphasizing areas of greatest opportunity and potential benefit and establishing the Nation as a global leader in fundamental transformational science and engineering.
Secondary Strategic Goal:
Learning: Build the Nation's research capability through critical investments in advanced instrumentation, facilities, cyber infrastructure, and experimental tools.

Achievement/Results

Richmond and colleagues from Kenya, South Africa, UK, and the US discovered the second-oldest footprints of our early ancestors in 1.5 million year-old sediments in northwestern Kenya. They used state-of-the-art laser scanning technology to digitally record the prints, and applied advanced 3D shape analysis (geometric morphometrics) and statistical methods to show that these footprints represent the oldest definitive evidence of a modern style of walking in early human ancestors, most likely early Homo erectus. This study combined biomechanics, geology, and paleontology and was published in Science (2009, Vol 323: 1197-1201, and featured as the cover article along with a Perspective in Science (2009, Vol 323: 1174-1175).

Address Goals

It was genuinely new discovery, and the wide publicity it received meant that it reached a wide national and international audience.

Posted By:
Bernard Wood
Posted:
November 19, 2009