Trail of hominid footprints fossilized in volcanic ash. This 70 metre trail was found by Mary Leakey's expedition at Laetoli, Tanzania in 1978. It dat

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Trail of hominid footprints fossilized in volcanic ash. This 70 metre trail was found by Mary Leakey's expedition at Laetoli, Tanzania in 1978. It dates from million years & shows that hominids had acquired the upright, bipedal, free- striding gait of modern man by this date. The trail probably belongs to Australopithecus afarensis & dates from to million years ago. The footprints show a well developed arch to the foot & no divergence of the big toe. They are of two adults with possibly a third set belonging to a child who walked in the footsteps of one of the adults. The prints to the far right belong to an hipparion, an extinct three-toed horse.

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Size: 3537px × 5079px
Photo credit: © JOHN READER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: ., afarensis, anthropology, australopithecus, footprint, fossil, hominid, hominids, hominin, laetoli, man, palaeoanthropology, palaeontology, paleoanthropology, paleontology