Palaontologists have discovered the oldest human footprints to date in southern Italy
Researchers from the Institute of Geology, Palaeontology and Geophysics of the University of Padua have discovered what are probably the oldest human footprints in southern Italy. These are the traces of three hominids found in the fossilized ash on the western rim of the Roccamonfina volcano, about 40 kilometers north of Naples. As the team of scientists led by Paolo Mietto reports in the current ie of Nature, the tracks date back to the middle Pleistocene and are dated between 385.000 and 325.000 years old.
The early ancestors of man, who left their traces at Roccamonfina, according to Mietto and his researchers, were already characterized by an upright gait and used their hands only to keep their balance on the difficult terrain. The footprints, popularly known as the devil’s footprints, went down a slope, a handprint indicates that one of the prehistoric hikers had a lurch on the descent and had to cut himself off. The feet of the early mountain climbers were only 20 centimeters long and 10 centimeters wide, according to today’s measurements this corresponds to a shoe size of 33 to 34, so the early climbers were probably not more than 1.50 meters tall.
The individual footprints are very well recognizable. According to Paolo Mietto, they do not have all the features characteristic of the human upright gait, but in his opinion there are enough similarities to suggest that these footprints already belonged to fully erect bipeds. In particular, the tracks with deep heel prints and some prints of toes and foot pads are valuable to scientists. Because just a pronounced Fubgewolbe is a characteristic, which is to be found in such a way only with humans.
The chronological classification of the traces is, however, so far somewhat makeshift. The Italian palaontologists were guided by the evolutionary history of the volcano, which can be divided into three sections. According to them, the footprints lie in an area of the second phase of the volcano, dating to the Middle Pleistocene, about 385 years ago.000 to 325.000 years ago. Therefore Mietto and his colleagues ame that these footprints are the oldest known traces of upright walking people so far.
Traces of the ancestors of today’s man were already found in Tanzania in 1979. They originate from Australopithcus afarensis. The fossilized traces of Laetoli were also preserved in fossilized volcanic ash. Their age is estimated to be 3.6 million years old. Paolo Mietto argues, however, that these tracks come from hominids much more distantly related to modern humans than the originators of the Roccamonfina fossil tracks.