{"id":49006,"date":"2024-11-29T20:47:23","date_gmt":"2024-11-29T20:47:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/muddy-footprints-reveal-early-human-neighbors-in-kenya"},"modified":"2024-11-29T21:20:17","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T21:20:17","slug":"muddy-footprints-reveal-early-human-neighbors-in-kenya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/muddy-footprints-reveal-early-human-neighbors-in-kenya","title":{"rendered":"Muddy footprints reveal early human neighbors in Kenya"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>Muddy footprints left on a Kenyan lakeside suggest two of our early human ancestors were nearby neighbours some 1.5 million years ago.<\/b><\/p>\n

The footprints were left in the mud by two different species \u201cwithin a matter of hours, or at most days,\u201d said palaeontologist Louise Leakey, co-author of the research published Thursday in the journal Science.<\/p>\n

Scientists previously knew from fossil remains that these two extinct branches of the human evolutionary tree \u2013 called Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei \u2013 lived about the same time in the Turkana Basin.<\/p>\n

However, dating fossils is not exact. \u201cIt\u2019s plus or minus a few thousand years,\u201d said palaeontologist William Harcourt-Smith of Lehman College and the American Museum of Natural History in New York, who was not involved in the study.<\/p>\n

Yet with fossil footprints, \u201cthere\u2019s an actual moment in time preserved,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s an amazing discovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tracks of fossil footprints were uncovered in 2021 in what is today Koobi Fora, Kenya, said Leaky, who is based at New York’s Stony Brook University.<\/p>\n

Whether the two individuals passed by the eastern side of Lake Turkana at the same time \u2013 or a day or two apart \u2013 they likely knew of each other\u2019s existence, said study co-author Kevin Hatala, a paleoanthropologist at Chatham University in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey probably saw each other, probably knew each other was there and probably influenced each other in some way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Scientists were able to distinguish between the two species because of the shape of the footprints, which holds clues to the anatomy of the foot and how it\u2019s being used.<\/p>\n

H. erectus appeared to be walking similar to how modern humans walk \u2013 striking the ground heel first, then rolling weight over the ball of the foot and toes and pushing off again.<\/p>\n

The other species, which was also walking upright, was moving \u201cin a different way from anything else we\u2019ve seen before, anywhere else,\u201d said co-author Erin Marie Williams-Hatala, a human evolutionary anatomist at Chatham.<\/p>\n

Among other details, the footprints suggest more mobility in their big toe, compared to H. erectus or modern humans, said Hatala.<\/p>\n

Our common primate ancestors probably had hands and feet adapted for grasping branches, but over time the feet of human ancestors evolved to enable walking upright, researchers say.<\/p>\n

The new study adds to a growing body of research that implies this transformation to bipedalism \u2013 walking on two feet \u2014 didn\u2019t happen at a single moment, in a single way.<\/p>\n

Rather, there may have been a variety of ways that early humans learned to walk, run, stumble and slide on prehistoric muddy slopes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt turns out, there are different gait mechanics \u2013 different ways of being bipedal,\u201d said Harcourt-Smith.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. Muddy footprints left on a Kenyan lakeside suggest two of our early human ancestors were nearby neighbours some 1.5 million years ago. The footprints were left in the mud by two different species \u201cwithin a matter of hours, or at most days,\u201d said palaeontologist Louise Leakey, co-author of the research published Thursday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":49005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[776,245,243,4814],"class_list":["post-49006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-miscellaneous","tag-history","tag-lesotho","tag-research","tag-world-heritage-site"],"yoast_head":"\nMuddy footprints reveal early human neighbors in Kenya - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Muddy footprints left on a Kenyan lakeside suggest two of our early human ancestors were nearby neighbours some 1.5 m ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/muddy-footprints-reveal-early-human-neighbors-in-kenya\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Muddy footprints reveal early human neighbors in Kenya\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Muddy footprints left on a Kenyan lakeside suggest two of our early human ancestors were nearby neighbours some 1.5 m ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/muddy-footprints-reveal-early-human-neighbors-in-kenya\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-11-29T20:47:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-11-29T21:20:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2024\/11\/sm_1732902395.633916.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"538\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/muddy-footprints-reveal-early-human-neighbors-in-kenya#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/muddy-footprints-reveal-early-human-neighbors-in-kenya\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Muddy footprints reveal early human neighbors in Kenya\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-11-29T20:47:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-11-29T21:20:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/muddy-footprints-reveal-early-human-neighbors-in-kenya\"},\"wordCount\":469,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/muddy-footprints-reveal-early-human-neighbors-in-kenya#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2024\/11\/sm_1732902395.633916.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"history\",\"Lesotho\",\"Research\",\"World Heritage Site\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"miscellaneous\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/muddy-footprints-reveal-early-human-neighbors-in-kenya#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/muddy-footprints-reveal-early-human-neighbors-in-kenya\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/muddy-footprints-reveal-early-human-neighbors-in-kenya\",\"name\":\"Muddy footprints reveal early human neighbors in Kenya - 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