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WonderHuman origins fact

At Laetoli in Tanzania, footprints pressed into volcanic ash about 3.6 million years ago show that early human relatives already walked upright on two feet. They are among the oldest known footprints of hominins, the group that includes humans and our extinct close relatives.

Laetoli footprints

EvolutionArchaeologyBiologyHistory

The story behind the card

The hominin prints were found in 1978 by a team led by the palaeoanthropologist Mary Leakey, two years after animal tracks were first noticed at the site. Ash from an eruption, probably of the nearby Sadiman volcano, was dampened by light rain, took the prints of animals and people walking across it, and set hard before more ash buried it. The main trail is about 27 metres long and was left by at least two individuals, most likely of the species Australopithecus afarensis, to which the famous skeleton nicknamed Lucy belongs. The feet show a humanlike arch and a big toe in line with the other toes, so upright walking was established long before large brains or stone tools.

Türkçe oku
Tanzanya'daki Laetoli'de yaklaşık 3,6 milyon yıl önce volkanik küle basılmış ayak izleri, insanın erken akrabalarının o dönemde iki ayak üzerinde dik yürüdüğünü gösteriyor. Bunlar, insanı ve soyu tükenmiş yakın akrabalarını kapsayan homininlere ait bilinen en eski ayak izleri arasındadır.

Homininlere ait izleri 1978'de paleoantropolog Mary Leakey'nin ekibi buldu; bölgede hayvan izleri iki yıl önce fark edilmişti. Büyük olasılıkla yakındaki Sadiman Yanardağı'ndan yağan kül, hafif bir yağmurla ıslanmış, üzerinden geçen hayvanların ve homininlerin izlerini almış, yeni kül katmanlarıyla örtülmeden önce de taş gibi sertleşmişti. Asıl iz yolu yaklaşık 27 metre uzunluğundadır ve en az iki bireye aittir. İzleri bırakanlar büyük olasılıkla, Lucy adıyla bilinen ünlü iskeletin de ait olduğu Australopithecus afarensis türündendi. Ayak kemerinin bizimkine benzemesi ve ayak başparmağının öteki parmaklarla aynı hizada durması, dik yürüyüşün büyük beyinlerden ve taş aletlerden çok önce yerleştiğini gösteriyor.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Laetoli
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