Hi,


I thought the earliest known footprints (and earliest evidence of fundamentally bipedal hominids) are known from Laetoli (Tanzania) ? These footprints from three hominids were discovered in 1978 by Mary Leakey, Richard Hay, Tim White and their team and are preserved in powdery volcanic ash from an eruption of the 20 km distant Sadiman Volcano. They are remarkably similar to modern humans and have been positively dated as 3.7 million years old (K/Ar-dated, Pliocene). Until recently, the footprints have generally been classified as Australopithecine because that had been the only form of pre-human known to have existed in that region at that time. But some scholars have considered reassigning them to a yet unidentified very early species of the genus Homo.


Ronald.