
#AceNewsReport – Oct.25: Originally dated to 5.7 million years ago, the 50 footprints might predate this estimateāproposed by scholars in 2017āby more than 300,000 years, according to a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports.
#AceDailyNews says that the findings could upend scientistsā understanding of human evolutionābut the paper has proven controversial: The oldest known human-like footprints may be even older than previously believed, reports Jacinta Bowler for Science Alert. New research suggests the controversial fossilized imprints, found on the Greek island of Crete in 2002, are around 6.05 million years old.
:focal(613x440:614x441)/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/73/5a/735a084e-dae4-4f60-bc80-f8e6025c80d0/footprint.jpg?w=580&ssl=1)
Believed to be left by hominins, the footprints could upend scientistsā understanding of how early humans evolved, moving the groupās starting point from Africa to the Mediterranean Sea, reports Ruth Schuster for Haaretz. Researchers say itās possible the bipedal creature who made the marks was a member of Graecopithecus freyberg, an early human ancestor discovered in 1944 and nicknamed āEl Graeco.ā
āThe tracks are almost 2.5 million years older than the tracks attributed to Australopithecus afarensis (Lucy) from Laetoli in Tanzania,ā says study co-author Uwe Kirscher, an expert on paleogeography at the University of Tübingen, in a statement.Laser scan of one of the best preserved footprints (left) and transverse sections showing concave and convex structures in the impression (right)GierliÅski et al. / Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association, 2017
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/02/ca/02ca8f98-a2d1-47fe-b1c6-e897f4a30668/1-s20-s001678781730113x-gr10_lrg.jpg?w=580&ssl=1)
Writing for the Conversation in 2017, Matthew Robert Bennett, an environmental scientist and geographer at Bournemouth University, and Per Ahlberg, an evolutionary biologist at Uppsala University, said, āThe footprints are small tracks made by someone walking upright on two legs.ā
The pair, who co-authored both the 2017 study and the new paper, added that the impressions āhave a shape and form very similar to human tracks,ā including five toes without claws, a parallel big toe and a ball of the foot.
āNon-human ape footprints look very different,ā the authors wrote. ā[T]he foot is shaped more like a human hand, with the big toe attached low on the side of the sole and sticking out sideways.ā
Some scientists are skeptical of the studyās claims, doubting that the Graecopithecus freyberg species even existed. Israel Hershkovitz, a biological anthropologist at Tel Aviv University who was not involved in the research, speculates that the footprints were actually left by a late European ape.
āAll we have from Europe is a group of pre-human apes,ā he tells Haaretz. āThey are interesting and attest to much more favorable climatic conditions [during the late Miocene], but I donāt think they are directly or indirectly associated with human evolution.ā
Speaking with Amalyah Hart of Cosmos magazine, Julien Louys, a paleontologist at Griffith University who wasnāt involved in the study,adds, āSome of the footprints look like a bipedal animal, but a lot of the other footprints are very ambiguous and variable in size. Some of them donāt look like footprints at all. So, the issue here is making a very large claim on the basis of information thatās quite open to interpretation.ā
The new study acknowledges this dissent. As the authors write, ā[Our] interpretation has been controversial, and several counter-interpretations have been made.āView of footprints discovered on Crete in 2002 Andrzej Boczarowski
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/3d/37/3d37e0cd-1650-4a6d-94ac-f03cc87b5837/149442_web.jpeg?w=580&ssl=1)
Paleontologist Gerard GierliÅski discovered the tracks on a beach near the village of Trachilos while on vacation in western Crete in 2002. The printsā owners left the impressions in sediment deposits linked to the end of the Miocene epoch, when the Mediterranean Sea temporarily dried out, wrote Emily Chung for CBC News in 2018.
Researchers used improved dating techniques to push back the timeline of the footprintsā creation, notes Cosmos. They settled on 6.05 million years ago by testing foraminiferaāfossilized marine microorganisms found in sedimentary rocks.
If correct, the teamās discovery could complicate the commonly held belief that humans originated in Africa. Discovered in Tanzania in 1974, the famous āLucyā fossilsāidentified as Australopithecus afarensis and dated to about 3.2 million years agoāare the oldest widely accepted pre-human footprints. But older body fossils attributed to early hominins have been found in Africa, suggesting the human lineage stretches back far beyond Lucyās species.
Comparatively, scientists suggest that modern humansāalso known as Homo sapiensāevolved around 300,000 years ago. The species includes genes from a now-extinct line of hominins known as Homo neanderthalensis, which first appeared about 430,000 years ago.
Even if the footprints do belong to hominins, their presence doesnāt necessarily discount the idea that Africa is the cradle of humankind.
āThe interesting thing claimed in the new paper is that it demonstrates migration from Europe to Africa of these bipedal hominins,ā Louys tells Cosmos. (This finding aligns with āDesert Swing,ā a hypothesis that posits dry conditions in Mesopotamia and the Sahara led to a mass migration of mammals from Eurasia to Africa around 6.25 million years ago.) āAll our studies of intercontinental migrations indicate that itās not just a one-way street.ā
Louys adds, āSo even if we take at face value that these are hominin footprints, thereās no indication that they have to have originated in Europe and then moved to Africa, thereās equal possibility that they could have originated in Africa and moved to Europe.ā
#AceNewsDesk report ………….Published: Oct.25: 2021:
Editor says ā¦Sterling Publishing & Media Service Agency is not responsible for the content of external site or from any reports, posts or links, and can also be found here on Telegram: https://t.me/acenewsdaily all of our posts fromTwitter can be found here: https://acetwitternews.wordpress.com/ and all wordpress and live posts and links here: https://acenewsroom.wordpress.com/and thanks for following as always appreciate every like, reblog or retweet and free help and guidance tips on your PC software or need help & guidance from our experts AcePCHelp.WordPress.Com
You must be logged in to post a comment.