Laetoli footprings

The fossil hominin footprints at Laetoli. The only hominin known from this locality is A. afarensis, which on skeletal evidence walked bipedally, and it is thus the most likely culprit. . . . .Like human walking, the main stress is on the ball of the foot and the heel, with secondary stress on the outside of the foot in line with the little toe.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laetoli

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Dinesh ^club

. . . At the end of a dry season some three and a half million years ago, the volcano Sadiman puffed out a series of ash falls over a period of a few days. After a rainfall, these soft surfaces were walked, hopped, and slithered through by all the animals that lived in the area, from elephants to millipedes. Mixed into the fine sandy material that Sadiman was bleaching over the plain was a very rare ash called carbonate. When it meets with water, carbonate goes into solution, and when the water evaporates, a mineral crystal called trona is left behind, which hardens like concrete. The rain that fell was just enough to dampen the ash, so that the footprints were preserved. Then Sadiman erupted again, laying down a protective layer of new ash. The whole process was repeated several times before the deluge of the rainy season began in earnest.

three and a half million more years of deposits, faulting, and erosion, and the prints were back out in the open, vulnerable once again. Fortunately, they were discovered before they could be destroyed by erosion. ….

The Laetoli footprints are probably the most precious discovery that has ever been made in this science, or ever will be made.” …… Page 188 (Excerpt: "Lucy's Child"

5 years ago. Edited 4 years ago.

Dinesh ^club

Excerpt from

4 years ago. Edited 6 months ago.

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