tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/footprint-32753/articlesfootprint – The Conversation2018-02-12T14:15:21Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/915842018-02-12T14:15:21Z2018-02-12T14:15:21ZWhat ancient footprints can tell us about what it was like to be a child in prehistoric times<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205918/original/file-20180212-58327-vep4i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Footprint from 700,000 years ago.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matthew Bennett</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Western society has a rather specific view of what a good childhood should be like; protecting, sheltering and legislating to ensure compliance with it. However, perceptions of childhood <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108227629">vary greatly</a> with geography, culture and time. What was it like to be a child in prehistoric times, for example – in the absence of toys, tablets and television? </p>
<p>In our new paper, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-21158-7">published in Scientific Reports</a>, we outline the discovery of children’s footprints in Ethiopia which show how children spent their time 700,000 years ago.</p>
<p>We first came across the question of what footprints can tell us about past childhood experiences a few years back while studying some <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2014.05.015">astonishingly beautiful children’s footprints</a> in Namibia, just south of Walvis Bay. In archaeological terms the tracks were young, dating only from around 1,500 years ago. They were made by a small group of children walking across a drying mud surface after a flock of sheep or goats. Some of these tracks were made by children as young as three-years-old in the company of slightly older children and perhaps young adolescents. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205696/original/file-20180209-51731-kf5fqi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205696/original/file-20180209-51731-kf5fqi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=228&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205696/original/file-20180209-51731-kf5fqi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=228&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205696/original/file-20180209-51731-kf5fqi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=228&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205696/original/file-20180209-51731-kf5fqi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=287&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205696/original/file-20180209-51731-kf5fqi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=287&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205696/original/file-20180209-51731-kf5fqi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=287&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Namibian footprints.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matthew Bennett</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>The detail in these tracks, preserved beneath the shifting sands of the Namibian Sand Sea, is amazing, and the pattern of footfall – with the occasional skip, hop and jump – shows they were being playful. The site also showed that children were trusted with the family flock of animals from an early age and, one assumes, they learnt from that experience how to function as adults were expected to within that culture. </p>
<h2>No helicopter parents</h2>
<p>But what about the childhood of our earlier ancestors – those that came before anatomically modern humans (<em>Homo sapiens</em>)? Children’s tracks by <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/homo-antecessor-common-ancestor-of-humans-and-neanderthals-143357767/">Homo antecessor</a> (1.2m to 800,000 years ago) <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0088329">were found at Happisburgh in East Anglia</a>, a site dating to a million years ago. Sadly though, these tracks leave no insight into what these children were doing.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205705/original/file-20180209-51731-zvclug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205705/original/file-20180209-51731-zvclug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=729&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205705/original/file-20180209-51731-zvclug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=729&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205705/original/file-20180209-51731-zvclug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=729&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205705/original/file-20180209-51731-zvclug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205705/original/file-20180209-51731-zvclug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205705/original/file-20180209-51731-zvclug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Reconstruction of Homo Heidelbergensis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jose Luis Martinez Alvarez/wikipedia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>But the footprints described in our recent study – from a remarkable site in the Upper Awash Valley of Southern Ethiopia that was excavated by researchers from the <a href="http://en.uniroma1.it/">Università di Roma “La Sapienza”</a> – reveal a bit more. The children’s tracks were probably made by the extinct species <a href="http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-heidelbergensis"><em>Homo heidelbergensis</em></a>(600,000 to 200,000 years ago), occurring next to adult prints and an abundance of animal tracks congregated around a small, muddy pool. Stone tools and the butchered remains of a hippo were also found at the site, called Melka Kunture. </p>
<p>This assemblage of tracks is capped by an ash flow from a nearby volcano which has been dated to 700,000 years ago. The ash flow was deposited shortly after the tracks were left, although we don’t know precisely how soon after. The tracks are not as anatomically distinct as those from Namibia but they are smaller and may have been made by children as young as one or two, standing in the mud while their parents and older siblings got on with their activities. This included knapping the stone tools with which they butchered the carcass of the hippo. </p>
<p>The findings create a unique and momentary insight into the world of a child long ago. They clearly were not left at home with a babysitter when the parents were hunting. In the harsh savannah plains of the East African Rift Valley, it was natural to bring your children to such daily tasks, perhaps so they could observe and learn.</p>
<p>This is not surprising, when one considers the wealth of ethnographic <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108227629">evidence from modern, culturally distinct human societies</a>. Babies and children are most often seen as the lowliest members of their social and family groups. They are often expected to contribute to activities that support the mother, and the wider family group, according to their abilities. In many societies, small boys tend to help with herding, while young girls are preferred as babysitters. Interestingly, adult tools – like axes, knives, machetes, even guns – are often freely available to children as a way of learning.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205714/original/file-20180209-51713-iq9e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205714/original/file-20180209-51713-iq9e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205714/original/file-20180209-51713-iq9e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205714/original/file-20180209-51713-iq9e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205714/original/file-20180209-51713-iq9e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205714/original/file-20180209-51713-iq9e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205714/original/file-20180209-51713-iq9e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Artistic impression of scene at Melka Kunture.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matthew Bennett</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>So, if we picture the scene at Melka Kunture, the children observing the butchery were probably allowed to handle stone tools and practice their skills on discarded pieces of carcass while staying out of the way of the fully-occupied adults. This was their school room, and the curriculum was the acquisition of survival skills. There was little time or space to simply be a child, in the sense that we would recognise today.</p>
<p>This was likely the case for a very long time. The <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10420940802470748?journalCode=gich20">Monte Hermoso Human Footprint Site</a> in Argentina (roughly 7,000-years-old) contains predominantly small tracks (of children and women) preserved in coastal sediments and it has been suggested that the children <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10420940802470748">may have played an important role</a> in gathering seafood or coastal resources. Similarly, most of the tracks in the <a href="http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/france/bison-tuc-d-audoubert/index.php">Tuc d'Audoubert Cave</a> in France (15,000-years-old) <a href="http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/france/bison-tuc-d-audoubert/bison-tuc-d-audoubert2.php">are those of children</a> and the art there is striking. Perhaps they were present when it was carved and painted? </p>
<p>However, these observations contrasts to the story that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19251625">emerged last year</a> based on tracks from the older Homo <em>Homo erectus</em> (1.5m-year-old) at Ileret, located further south in the Rift Valley, just within the northern border of Kenya. Here the tracks <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1038%2Fsrep26374">have been interpreted</a> as the product of adult hunting groups moving along a lake shore, rather than a domestic scene such as that at Melka Kunture. However, these scenes aren’t mutually exclusive and both show the power of footprints to provide a snapshot into past hominin behaviour. </p>
<p>But it does seem like the overwhelming parenting lesson from the distant past is that children had more responsibilities, less adult supervision and certainly no indulgence from their parents. It is a picture of a childhood very different from our own, at least from the privileged perspective of life in Western society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91584/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Robert Bennett receives funding from UK Natural Environment Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sally Christine Reynolds does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Children in the distant past were put to work early, reveal footprints.Matthew Robert Bennett, Professor of Environmental and Geographical Sciences, Bournemouth UniversitySally Christine Reynolds, Senior Lecturer in Hominin Palaeoecology, Bournemouth UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/860042017-10-25T18:31:46Z2017-10-25T18:31:46ZMeet the giant dinosaur that roamed southern Africa 200 million years ago<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191793/original/file-20171025-25544-htfgc5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kayentapus ambrokholohali footprints belong to an animal of about 26 feet long, dwarfing all the life around it.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Theropod image adapted by Lara Sciscio, with permission, from an illustration by Scott Hartman</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Globally at around 200 million years ago, in what’s known as the Early Jurassic, small and agile two-legged carnivorous dinosaurs called <a href="http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/saurischia/theropoda.html">theropods</a> roamed the ancient landscapes. In southern Africa, we know of their existence from their rare body fossils but also, importantly, from their fossil footprints.</p>
<p>Now our team’s new discovery, <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0185941">published in <em>PLOS ONE</em></a>, unexpectedly reveals that very large carnivorous dinosaurs with an estimated body length of between 8 to 9 meters (or 26 feet) – that’s a <a href="https://www.convertunits.com/from/feet/to/story">two-story building</a> or two adult rhinos nose to tail – lived in southern Africa too. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191351/original/file-20171023-1689-2ow4d6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191351/original/file-20171023-1689-2ow4d6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191351/original/file-20171023-1689-2ow4d6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191351/original/file-20171023-1689-2ow4d6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191351/original/file-20171023-1689-2ow4d6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191351/original/file-20171023-1689-2ow4d6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=969&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191351/original/file-20171023-1689-2ow4d6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=969&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191351/original/file-20171023-1689-2ow4d6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=969&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Miengah Abrahams, a PhD student from the University of Cape Town, lying next to the dinosaur’s tracks. She is 1.6m tall.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lara Sciscio</span></span>
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<p>Evidence for this massive beast comes from a set of three-toed, 57cm long and 50cm wide footprints recently found in western Lesotho. This is a first for Africa. It places a huge carnivorous dinosaur in what was then the southern part of the <a href="https://www.livescience.com/37285-gondwana.html">supercontinent Gondwana</a> during Early Jurassic times.</p>
<p>Until this discovery, theropod dinosaurs were thought to be considerably smaller, at three to five metres in body length, during the Early Jurassic. </p>
<p>There has only been one other report of large carnivorous dinosaurs occurring as early as 200 million years ago. This also came from fossil footprint evidence in Poland’s <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/244483002_Slady_wielkich_teropodow_z_wczesnojurajskich_osadow_Gor_Swietokrzyskich_in_Polish_with_English_abstract">Holy Cross Mountains</a>. Such giants are rare. The iconic and enormous (about 12 metres long) <em>Tyrannosaurus</em>, for instance, only emerged around 128 million years later during the <a href="https://animals.howstuffworks.com/dinosaurs/late-cretaceous-period.htm">Late Cretaceous</a>. </p>
<p>The dimensions of the trackmaker with the 57cm long feet, although slightly smaller, come close to those of the well-known and younger Late Cretaceous theropod dinosaurs such as <em>Tyrannosaurus rex</em> or the similarly huge North African <em>Spinosaurus</em>.</p>
<p>The unanticipated footprint size of this Lesotho giant considerably expands the body size range of theropods in the Early Jurassic. Now the hunt is on to track down more theropod footprints – and perhaps even their body fossils.</p>
<h2>Lesotho’s giant carnivore</h2>
<p>Our <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0185941">team of scientists</a> from South Africa’s University of Cape Town, the University of Manchester in the UK, <a href="http://www.fundaciondinopolis.org/">Fundación Conjunto Paleontológico de Teruel-Dinópolis</a> in Spain, and Brazil’s Universidade de São Paulo discovered the 200 million year old megatheropod trackway during recent fieldwork in Lesotho. </p>
<p>The footprints were found on a small dirt road approximately 2km from the National University of Lesotho at Roma (Maseru District) in the western part of the country. They are on a palaeosurface, an ancient land surface that has been preserved in time.</p>
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<span class="caption">Once the dinosaur’s tracks had been identified and cleaned of rock debris, the team photographed and took silicon rubber impressions of them.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lara Sciscio</span></span>
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<p>The ancient surface is also covered in the footprints of other theropod dinosaurs. Even their footprint impressions are relatively large (30-40cm long) for the time period. </p>
<p>The 57 cm long Lesotho footprints have been named <em>Kayentapus ambrokholohali</em>. The trackmaker falls into an informal grouping of very large dinosaurs, called “megatheropods”, with footprints exceeding 50 cm in length and calculated hip heights greater than 2 m. </p>
<p>The new species name <em>ambrokholohali</em> was given to identify this particular footprint. It was derived in honour of Emeritus Professor David Ambrose, a now retired professor and Head Research Fellow at National University of Lesotho, for his detailed recording of the trace fossil heritage within Roma. </p>
<p>We were following in Ambrose’s footsteps, trying to relocate one of his documented sites, when we discovered the freshly exposed megatheropod footprints.</p>
<p>The latter part of the name, <em>kholohali</em>, is derived from two Sesotho words: “kholo”, meaning big, large or great and “hali”, meaning much or very. This was to describe its unexpectedly large size. </p>
<h2>Size matters</h2>
<p>The main bipedal predators during the Mesozoic (the “Dinosaur Era”) were large theropod dinosaurs. They included the <em>Allosaurus</em> (from the late Jurassic) and <em>Tyrannosaurus</em> (Upper Cretaceous). But early in the Mesozoic, theropod dinosaurs were usually relatively small (3–5 m body length). Truly large forms of theropods only started making their appearance around 100 million years later, within the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous.</p>
<p>In light of this, the new discovery of these impressively large tracks expands the range of body size for theropods in the Early Jurassic at the very onset of their diversification. But, why were these theropods so much larger than anything else around at the time? An answer could lie in the timing of their evolution. </p>
<p>The megatheropod tracks appear after the end-Triassic <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/end-Triassic-extinction">mass extinction event</a>. This mass extinction event was the result of a biotic crisis that significantly affected animals both on land and sea. The biotic crisis allowed for the main competitors of theropod dinosaurs to be completely eradicated. Killing off the competition, coupled with changes in ecosystem composition, probably gave theropod dinosaurs “free reign” to dominate the Early Jurassic landscape and resources. </p>
<p>Another possible driver for larger theropod body size was the increased size of the herbivorous dinosaurs – like the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/nov/10/south-african-scientists-new-dinosaur-species-fossils-sauropod-highland-giant-karoo">Highland Giant sauropodomorph</a> – within the same ancient landscape. </p>
<p>It’s most likely that both factors lead to theropods in southern Africa being able to evolve into numerous forms and increase in abundance. But these are questions we can’t answer conclusively.</p>
<h2>Giant footprints, but still no fossils</h2>
<p>The body fossil evidence for theropod dinosaurs in southern Africa is slim. Luckily the footprints they left behind are not. By studying these and other tracks as well as the bone fossil record, scientists are able to tentatively link footprints to potential trackmakers. </p>
<p>To date, we have no body fossil material to match the <em>K. ambrokholohali</em>‘s footprints. Hopefully we’ll soon discover more unusual footprints and, from there, body fossils that will help add to our understanding of the complex ancient world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86004/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lara Sciscio and her colleagues received funding for this work from the National Research Foundation of South Africa
Competitive Programme for Rated Researches (NRF Grant number 93544 Bordy) and the Department of Science and Technology-National Research Foundation Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences. The work was also supported by the ARAID (<a href="https://www.araid.es/">https://www.araid.es/</a>)</span></em></p>Until this discovery, theropod dinosaurs were thought to be considerably smaller, at three to five metres in body length, during the Early Jurassic.Lara Sciscio, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Geological Sciences, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/841652017-09-15T17:17:02Z2017-09-15T17:17:02ZNewly discovered 6m-year-old Cretan footprints stolen – finder writes about how we must protect precious sites<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186220/original/file-20170915-13360-lvndej.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Vandalised site, showing fresh sand along the edges of the slab where it has been lifted and the holes left by the removal of two blocks in the centre.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Babis Fassoulas</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There has been a lot of interest in our discovery of nearly-6m-year-old footprints on Crete, <a href="https://theconversation.com/our-controversial-footprint-discovery-suggests-human-like-creatures-may-have-roamed-crete-nearly-6m-years-ago-82326">first reported by the The Conversation</a> – suggesting that human ancestors could have roamed Europe at the same time as they were evolving in East Africa. </p>
<p>Sadly the <a href="https://www.thenationalherald.com/174978/fossil-footprints-early-human-ancestor-stolen-crete/">site was vandalised</a> in the last week, with four or five of the 29 tracks stolen. We are fortunate that many of the best tracks remain – the people who did it clearly didn’t know what they were looking for. Our guess is that they were simply intending to sell them.</p>
<p>The theft occurred despite the site being afforded protection under Greek heritage law and being in the care of local officials. Police, we are told, <a href="http://www.amna.gr/home/article/187678/">have made an arrest</a> in connection with the incident, and it is hoped that the missing material will be returned soon. The damage, however, is irreparable. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186222/original/file-20170915-4751-17rys5c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186222/original/file-20170915-4751-17rys5c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186222/original/file-20170915-4751-17rys5c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186222/original/file-20170915-4751-17rys5c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186222/original/file-20170915-4751-17rys5c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186222/original/file-20170915-4751-17rys5c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186222/original/file-20170915-4751-17rys5c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The site has now been buried.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Babis Fassoulas</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Cretan authorities moved swiftly to bury the site temporarily while a more permanent conservation solution, such as moving the entire surface, is sought. We are lucky that the whole area has been 3D-scanned with an optical laser scanner in high resolution as part of the original study. In due course this data will be made available via the Natural History Museum of Crete and the Museum of Evolution at Uppsala University in Sweden. So there will fortunately not be much of an impact on the research.</p>
<p>Yet the event is devastating. To understand the significance to someone who studies ancient tracks like these, consider it equivalent to an attempt to steal part of the Sphinx at Giza or vandals dislodging one of lintel blocks at Stonehenge. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, the theft and vandalism of tracks is nothing new. For example, there was a recent case on the Isle of Skye in Scotland of <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/vandal-ruins-165-million-year-9535475">vandalised dinosaur tracks</a> dating from around 165m year ago that lead to a police probe. The ethics around the collection and sale of fossils and artefacts is complex, and many of the great scientific collections today are based on collection and sales <a href="https://goo.gl/Wrzxpq">by amateurs in the past</a>. Ultimately, it seems wrong to collect and sell artefacts that there’s only a limited number of. </p>
<h2>Conversation challenges</h2>
<p>But how can you conserve what is essentially a slab of soft rock, close to the sea and open to the elements? Oddly, erosion at such sites is to be encouraged because it often helps reveal new surfaces which may contain additional prints. </p>
<p>It’s tricky – a problem I first faced following my <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/323/5918/1197">discovery of the Ileret hominin footprints</a>, the second oldest such tracks in the world at the time, and preserved in nothing but packed silt.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186221/original/file-20170915-8065-qtsoat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186221/original/file-20170915-8065-qtsoat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186221/original/file-20170915-8065-qtsoat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186221/original/file-20170915-8065-qtsoat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186221/original/file-20170915-8065-qtsoat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186221/original/file-20170915-8065-qtsoat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186221/original/file-20170915-8065-qtsoat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The site has been buried in haste to avoid further thefts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Babis Fassoulas</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I did some research on this with colleagues and concluded that the only option <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0060755">is to excavate and digitally record them in 3D</a>. This can be done either with a laser scanner or just with a digital camera in the field. Some 20 pictures of a track from different angles is enough to create a 3D image. These days 3D printers <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-dinosaurs-to-crime-scenes-how-our-new-footprint-software-can-bring-the-past-to-life-67947">can easily create models</a> for museums and for collectors. </p>
<p>Digital preservation is probably the key for the Cretan tracks as well. This worked well for the 2,100-year-old human <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_footprints_of_Acahualinca">footprints of Acahualinca</a>
in Managua (Nicaragua), where the originals are <a href="http://oceanrep.geomar.de/6771/1/969_Schmincke_2009_WalkingThroughVolcanicMudThe_Artzeit_pubid13136.pdf">perfectly preserved</a> under a roof built over the site, and in an adjacent museum. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://showme.co.za/tourism/nahoon-point-nature-reserve-east-london/">120,000-year-old human footprints at Nahoon Point</a> in South Africa are marked by a footprint-shaped visitors’ centre that looks great from Google Earth. There are also a number of <a href="https://goo.gl/Xs4Dte">excellent examples</a> of dinosaur track sites preserved in museums and under shelters, such as those at Las Cerradicas in Spain. </p>
<p>Perhaps the most controversial of conservation solutions has been to bury the world’s <a href="http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/behavior/footprints/laetoli-footprint-trails">oldest confirmed hominin footprints</a> – from Laetoli in Tanzania – which were first documented in the late 1970s. These tracks were buried as a way of protecting them from weathering and natural-decay. </p>
<p>There has been extensive debate about what should happen at this site and many scientists are unhappy about the lack of access. Plans for the site over the years have varied from an on-site museum to the removal of the whole slab to another site. The debate continues, but ultimately it is money that precludes a solution that would allow access to the public and scientists alike. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181765/original/file-20170811-1225-geo7fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181765/original/file-20170811-1225-geo7fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181765/original/file-20170811-1225-geo7fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181765/original/file-20170811-1225-geo7fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181765/original/file-20170811-1225-geo7fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181765/original/file-20170811-1225-geo7fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181765/original/file-20170811-1225-geo7fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The footprints pictured in the research paper are still intact.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Indeed, the challenge is always money. It is expensive to erect and maintain protective structures, and to gain funds you need publicity to ensure that all the stakeholders involved are aware of the scientific, social and emotional value of a site.</p>
<p>One of the reasons for publicising the Trachilos tracks was not only to get the discovery debated in open scientific circles, but also to raise its public profile – thereby seeking better protection and ultimately its preservation in a local museum. That would bring visitors and fuel local revenue. </p>
<p>The trouble is the very publicity aimed to assist the site’s protection may have led to an enhanced perception of its monetary value. After all, the site had been known locally for years. Publicity though, is a double-edged sword and we have been lucky on this occasion to avoid the full length of its blade.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84165/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Robert Bennett receives funding from the Natural Environment Rsearch Council. </span></em></p>Latest development in ‘Crete feet’ find serves as a reminder of the challenges facing dig sites.Matthew Robert Bennett, Professor of Environmental and Geographical Sciences, Bournemouth UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/834122017-09-04T10:20:43Z2017-09-04T10:20:43ZAncient footprints in Crete challenge theory of human evolution – but what actually made them?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184420/original/file-20170903-27238-89w6fa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The oldest known human footprints, from Africa, are by Australopithecus. So who made the Trachilos footprints? </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matheusvieeira/wikipedia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Researchers <a href="https://theconversation.com/our-controversial-footprint-discovery-suggests-human-like-creatures-may-have-roamed-crete-nearly-6m-years-ago-82326">have discovered</a> some 50 footprints at Trachilos in Crete that are nearly 6m-years-old. It looks like they may be from a hominin – a member of the human species after separation from the chimpanzee lineage. But, as the authors point out themselves, the findings are highly controversial – suggesting human ancestors may have existed in Crete at the same time as they evolved in Africa. </p>
<p>So what should we make of it all? If the footprints are confirmed to be from a hominin – additional studies are needed before we can know for sure – it is unquestionably exciting. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/our-controversial-footprint-discovery-suggests-human-like-creatures-may-have-roamed-crete-nearly-6m-years-ago-82326">Our controversial footprint discovery suggests human-like creatures may have roamed Crete nearly 6m years ago</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The oldest footprints confirmed as hominin are the Laetoli series, which date to 3.65m years. The <a href="http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/behavior/footprints/laetoli-footprint-trails">Laetoli series</a>, found in Laetoli, Tanzania, are now known to have been made by the early human ancestor Australopithecus. It <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/meet-chewie-the-biggest-australopithecus-on-record-1.21144">was up to six feet tall</a> had foot function pretty much indistinguishable from our own.</p>
<h2>The candidates</h2>
<p>So what kind of two-legged creatures have roamed Europe or nearby countries? We have abundant fossil evidence of great apes in Europe at the time of the Trachilos footprints, but no confirmed cases of hominins. Apes go as far back as 13m years ago, such as <a href="https://www.primates.com/pierolapithecus/index.html">Pierolapithecus</a> from Barcelona. Two million years later, the pongine or orangutan relative <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0039617">Hispanopithecus</a> lived in the same region. Excellent skeletons of both indicate they were probably partially walking upright. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181855/original/file-20170813-13505-1824wph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181855/original/file-20170813-13505-1824wph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181855/original/file-20170813-13505-1824wph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181855/original/file-20170813-13505-1824wph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181855/original/file-20170813-13505-1824wph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181855/original/file-20170813-13505-1824wph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181855/original/file-20170813-13505-1824wph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Laetoli footprints.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/timevanson/7282890542">Tim Evanson/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The ape <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Dryopithecus">Dryopithecus</a> and the possible hominin <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/05/22/europe-birthplace-mankind-not-africa-scientists-find/">Graecopithecus</a> from Greece were also around. The latter is about 7m years old, but unfortunately no skeleton has been found except for skull and teeth. Slightly older at about 9m-years-old are the very complete postcranial skeletons of <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/human-evolutions-cookie-monster-oreopithecus-1657956/">Oreopithecus</a> from Italy, which was unquestionably walking on two legs – and probably in trees as well as on ground. We don’t know for sure, but it might also be a hominin. </p>
<p>In Kenya, there was <a href="http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/orrorin-tugenensis">Orrorin</a>, also slightly older than Trachilos. It lived in trees but walked on two legs, completely upright. Orrorin was quite likely a hominin or a very close relative of the common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans, although human-like in all ways. Importantly though, we unfortunately lack evidence of the feet, so we cannot compare it with the Trachilos footprints.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181765/original/file-20170811-1225-geo7fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181765/original/file-20170811-1225-geo7fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181765/original/file-20170811-1225-geo7fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181765/original/file-20170811-1225-geo7fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181765/original/file-20170811-1225-geo7fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181765/original/file-20170811-1225-geo7fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181765/original/file-20170811-1225-geo7fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Trachilos footprints.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Slightly younger than the Trachilos prints, <a href="http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/ardipithecus-ramidus">Ardipithecus</a> from Ethiopia, is a generally accepted member of the human lineage. Like Orrorin it could have been close to the common chimpanzee-human ancestor, but looked more like a modern human: Homo sapien. It is becoming increasingly clear that the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees had limbs and trunk (a postcranial skeleton) much more like our own than like those of living chimpanzees.</p>
<h2>Gorilla prints?</h2>
<p>So what or who made the Trachilos prints? They are certainly convincing as real footprints, from the few pictures provided in the paper. The age estimate of 5.7m years also seems correct. The prints do have a narrow heel compared to our general idea of what human footprints look like, as the authors note. But that could easily be matched by the shape of human footprints walking in wet mud, such as in an estuary – which may have been the case. They have a big toe placed quite close to the others, like our own, but so do the feet of gorillas.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184417/original/file-20170903-15714-1bo1opz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184417/original/file-20170903-15714-1bo1opz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184417/original/file-20170903-15714-1bo1opz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184417/original/file-20170903-15714-1bo1opz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184417/original/file-20170903-15714-1bo1opz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184417/original/file-20170903-15714-1bo1opz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184417/original/file-20170903-15714-1bo1opz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gorilla foot.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pixabay</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Gorillas now appear to be in some respects <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289367149_The_hominins_A_very_conservative_tribe_Last_common_ancestors_plasticity_and_ecomorphology_in_Hominidae_Or_What's_in_a_name">a good model</a> for what the gait (and ecology) of the earliest human ancestors might have been like, moving on two legs on the ground as well as in the trees. </p>
<p>The fact is that human footprints and foot function vary enormously between steps as a consequence of the complexity of our anatomy and ability to make choices from a large range of functional strategies to maintain stability. Human foot pressure, which is the way force is applied over the sole of the foot to the ground, overlaps with that of orangutans and pygmy chimpanzees, and probably even more with that of gorillas. So in some circumstances a human foot could look like that of a gorilla. </p>
<p>If all 50 of the Trachilos prints were made freely available to other scientists as high resolution laser scans, we would have a decent sample to assess their variability and compare them to other fossil and recent footprints and foot pressure records. And indeed, the researchers behind the study told The Conversation they are aiming to release all their data at some point. </p>
<p>This would give us a good chance of saying who made them. As it stands, they could as well be those of gorillas – which separated from us over 10m years ago – as those of a member of our own human lineage such as Oreopithecus or Orrorin. </p>
<p><em>You can read the Trachilos researchers’ own article about their footprint discovery <a href="https://theconversation.com/our-controversial-footprint-discovery-suggests-human-like-creatures-may-have-roamed-crete-nearly-6m-years-ago-82326">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83412/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robin Crompton receives funding from The Leverhulme Trust, NERC and BBSRC</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susannah Thorpe receives funding from the Leverhulme Trust, Royal Society and NERC.</span></em></p>Experts are intrigued by 5.7m-year-old footprints from Crete but argue we cannot yet know for sure whether they come from a human ancestor.Robin Crompton, Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute of Ageing and Chronic Disease, University of LiverpoolSusannah Thorpe, Reader in Zoology, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/823262017-08-31T15:55:51Z2017-08-31T15:55:51ZOur controversial footprint discovery suggests human-like creatures may have roamed Crete nearly 6m years ago<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181777/original/file-20170811-1192-1tmv6u3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Foot for thought.</span> </figcaption></figure><p>The human foot is distinctive. Our five toes lack claws, we normally present the sole of our foot flat to the ground, and our first and second toes are longer than the smaller ones. In comparison to our fellow primates, our big toes are in line with the long axis of the foot – they don’t stick out to one side. </p>
<p>In fact, some would argue that one of the defining characteristics of being part of the human clade is the shape of our foot. So imagine our surprise when we discovered fossil footprints with remarkable, human-like characteristics at Trachilos, Crete, that are 5.7m years old. This research, published in the <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001678781730113X">Proceedings of the Geologist Association</a>, is controversial as it suggests that the earliest human ancestors may have wandered around southern Europe as well as East Africa.</p>
<p>The period corresponds to a geological time interval known as the Miocene. The footprints are small tracks made by someone walking upright on two legs – there are 29 of them in total. They range in size from 94mm to 223mm, and have a shape and form very similar to human tracks. Non-human ape footprints look very different; the foot is shaped more like a human hand, with the big toe attached low on the side of the sole and sticking out sideways.</p>
<p>The footprints were dated using a combination of fossilised marine <a href="http://www.ucl.ac.uk/GeolSci/micropal/foram.html">microorganisms called foraminifera</a> and the character of the local sedimentary rocks. Foraminifera evolve very rapidly and marine sedimentary rocks can be dated quite precisely on the basis of the foraminifera they contain. These indicated an age somewhere in the span 8.5m to 3.5m years. However, at the very end of the Miocene, about 5.6m years ago, an extraordinary thing happened: the entire Mediterranean sea dried out for some time. This event left a clear signature in the sediments of the surrounding areas. The sediments that contain the footprints suggest they probably date to the period immediately before this, at about 5.7m years.</p>
<h2>Cradle of humanity</h2>
<p>The “cradle of humanity” has long been thought to lie in Africa, with most researchers suggesting that Ethiopia was where the human lineage originated. The <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v418/n6894/full/nature00879.html?foxtrotcallback=true">earliest known body fossils</a> that are accepted as hominins (members of the human lineage) by most researchers are <em>Sahelanthropus tchadensis</em> from Chad (about 7m years old), <a href="https://lba.ku.edu/sites/lba.drupal.ku.edu/files/docs/Courses/ORRORIN.pdf"><em>Orrorin tugenensis</em> from Kenya</a> (about 6m years old) and <a href="https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v412/n6843/full/412178a0.html"><em>Ardipithecus kadabba</em> from Ethiopia</a> (about 5.8-5.2m years old). </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181855/original/file-20170813-13505-1824wph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181855/original/file-20170813-13505-1824wph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181855/original/file-20170813-13505-1824wph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181855/original/file-20170813-13505-1824wph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181855/original/file-20170813-13505-1824wph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181855/original/file-20170813-13505-1824wph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181855/original/file-20170813-13505-1824wph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Laetoli footprints.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/timevanson/7282890542">Tim Evanson/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The oldest known footprints, however, were found at Laetoli in Tanzania and come from the next geological time interval, the Pliocene. These are some 3.66m years old and even more human-like than those of Trachilos. The second oldest tracks are those at <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/323/5918/1197.full">Ileret made by Homo erectus</a> (1.5m years old), and are little different from the tracks that we ourselves might make today.</p>
<p>If – and for many it is a big if – the tracks of Trachilos were indeed made by an early human ancestor, then the biogeographical range of our early ancestors would increase to encompass the eastern Mediterranean. Crete was not an island at this time but attached to the Greek mainland, and the environment of the Mediterranean region was very different from now. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181788/original/file-20170811-13511-tyosgd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181788/original/file-20170811-13511-tyosgd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181788/original/file-20170811-13511-tyosgd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181788/original/file-20170811-13511-tyosgd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181788/original/file-20170811-13511-tyosgd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=648&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181788/original/file-20170811-13511-tyosgd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=648&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181788/original/file-20170811-13511-tyosgd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=648&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Oldest known footpints.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The discovery comes just months after another study reported the discovery of 7m-year-old Greek and Bulgarian fossil teeth from a hominin ape dubbed “El Graeco”. This is the oldest fossil of a human-like ape, which has led some to suggest that <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0177127">humans started to evolve in Europe</a> hundreds of thousands of years before they started to evolve in Africa. But many scientists <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2132026-our-common-ancestor-with-chimps-may-be-from-europe-not-africa/">have remained sceptical</a> about this claim – as are we. The presence of Miocene hominids in Europe and Africa simply shows that both continents are possible “homelands” for the group. In theory, El Graeco could be responsible for the Trachilos foorprints but without any limb or foot bones it is impossible to tell.</p>
<h2>Alternative solutions</h2>
<p>But there are other ways to interpret the findings. Some might suggest that the distinctive anatomy of a human-like foot could have evolved more than once. The tracks could have been made by a hitherto unknown Miocene primate that had a foot anatomy and locomotive style not unlike our own. </p>
<p>There are examples throughout the fossil record of what is called “convergent evolution” – two unrelated animals developing similar anatomical features as adaptations to a particular lifestyle. However, there is nothing about the Trachilos footprints themselves that suggests such convergence. </p>
<p>Convergence rarely produces perfect duplicates; rather, you tend to get an odd mix of similarities and differences, like you see when you compare a shark and a dolphin for example. Now, imagine if the Trachilos footprints combined human-like characters with a few other characters that simply didn’t “fit”: for example, that the toes looked human-like but carried big claws. This would be a reason to suspect that the human-like features could be convergent. But the Trachilos footprints don’t show any such discordant characters, they simply look like primitive hominin footprints as far as we can tell.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181765/original/file-20170811-1225-geo7fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181765/original/file-20170811-1225-geo7fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181765/original/file-20170811-1225-geo7fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181765/original/file-20170811-1225-geo7fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181765/original/file-20170811-1225-geo7fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181765/original/file-20170811-1225-geo7fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181765/original/file-20170811-1225-geo7fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The footprints.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For those unable to see beyond Africa as the “human cradle”, these tracks present a considerable challenge, and it has not been easy to get the discovery published. Some have even questioned whether the observed features are footprints at all. However, collectively, the researchers behind this study have published over 400 papers on tracks, so we are pretty confidence we know what they are.</p>
<p>Although the results are controversial, suggesting that the rich East African evidence for early hominids may not be telling the whole story, it’s important that we take the findings seriously. The Trachilos tracksite deserves to be protected and the evidence should be debated by scientists.</p>
<p>It is now for the researchers in the field to embark on finding more tracks or, better still, body fossils that will help us to better understand this interesting period of primate diversity, which ultimately led to our own evolution irrespective of where this first happened. The very essence of this type of science is prospection, discovery, evidence-based inference and debate. We are sure that this paper will stimulate debate; let us hope that it also stimulates further discoveries.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82326/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Robert Bennett receives funding from the UK Natural Environment Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Per Ahlberg receives funding from a Wallenberg Scholarship from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.</span></em></p>A new study can’t rule out the possibility that human ancestors lived on Crete at the same time as they evolved in Africa.Matthew Robert Bennett, Professor of Environmental and Geographical Sciences, Bournemouth UniversityPer Ahlberg, Professor of Evolutionary Biology, Uppsala UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/813232017-08-07T20:09:40Z2017-08-07T20:09:40ZWhen dinosaurs walked the Earth they moved like modern birds<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180828/original/file-20170803-9082-hoofvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How the mighty dinosaurs would have walked millions of years ago.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/hoyd/32176906413/">Flickr/Ørjan Hoyd Vøllestad</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>We know that dinosaurs ruled the Earth many millions ago, but how they walked has been a mystery.</p>
<p>Our new research shows that the movement of some dinosaurs has a lot in common with some of today’s ground-dwelling birds. We looked at <a href="https://www.britannica.com/animal/theropod">theropod</a> dinosaurs, which were typically bipedal (two-legged), walking on their hind legs like <em>Tyrannosaurus rex</em>.</p>
<p>In our study, <a href="http://rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/14/132/20170276">published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface</a>, we took measurements of 211-million-year-old theropod footprints from a quarry at Culpeper in Virginia, in the United States, and compared them to similar measurements for locomotion in humans and 11 species of ground-dwelling bird such as the quail, emu and Australian bush turkey.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/book-review-flying-dinosaurs-how-fearsome-reptiles-became-birds-30704">Book review: Flying Dinosaurs – How fearsome reptiles became birds</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This is the first time that locomotion in the three groups of bipeds has been compared on a level playing field. In particular, we focused on a parameter called step width, which measures how widely spaced the left and right feet are during locomotion.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180997/original/file-20170804-27473-1th32xr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180997/original/file-20170804-27473-1th32xr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180997/original/file-20170804-27473-1th32xr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180997/original/file-20170804-27473-1th32xr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180997/original/file-20170804-27473-1th32xr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180997/original/file-20170804-27473-1th32xr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180997/original/file-20170804-27473-1th32xr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180997/original/file-20170804-27473-1th32xr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The footprints of a human, living bird and extinct dinosaur.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Christofer Clemente and Peter Bishop</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We compared measurements of step width against the speed of the animal, measured directly for the modern species, or by using stride length as a proxy for the extinct theropods. </p>
<h2>From walking to running</h2>
<p>In all three groups, step width decreased with increasing speed. In other words, as the animal moved faster, the left and right feet were placed closer towards the body midline, and at the fastest speeds of locomotion, the feet could even cross over the midline. </p>
<p>So this told us that the extinct theropods that made the footprints were at least following the same general principle seen in modern bipeds.</p>
<p>Interestingly, however, the way in which step width decreased with increasing speed was different between the three groups. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180998/original/file-20170804-27452-180tlh1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180998/original/file-20170804-27452-180tlh1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180998/original/file-20170804-27452-180tlh1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=876&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180998/original/file-20170804-27452-180tlh1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=876&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180998/original/file-20170804-27452-180tlh1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=876&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180998/original/file-20170804-27452-180tlh1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1101&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180998/original/file-20170804-27452-180tlh1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1101&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180998/original/file-20170804-27452-180tlh1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1101&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Note the sudden change in the way humans move when they speed up compared to living birds and extinct dinosaur.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Christofer Clemente and Peter Bishop</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In humans, step width shows an abrupt, precipitous decrease at the transition from walking to running. In other words, as soon as we start running we suddenly bring our feet much closer towards the body midline. </p>
<p>But in both the modern birds and the extinct theropods, no such abrupt change was observed. Instead, the step width decreased gradually with increasing speed.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FwcHSrc0oYs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">T. rex may have looked like this quail when it moved.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This pattern of similarity and contrast suggests that the extinct theropods were moving more like modern birds than humans. </p>
<p>Furthermore, a gradual or continuous change with speed has been previously observed for many other measurements of locomotion in birds, such as stride length and step frequency.</p>
<p>Birds therefore have what is called a “continuous locomotor repertoire” – that is, walking and running are not distinct gaits (as they are in humans), but instead they transition seamlessly from one to the other.</p>
<p>The extinct theropods that made the footprints were probably also using a similarly continuous locomotor behaviour.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180830/original/file-20170803-23530-1qiofsh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180830/original/file-20170803-23530-1qiofsh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180830/original/file-20170803-23530-1qiofsh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=324&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180830/original/file-20170803-23530-1qiofsh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=324&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180830/original/file-20170803-23530-1qiofsh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=324&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180830/original/file-20170803-23530-1qiofsh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180830/original/file-20170803-23530-1qiofsh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180830/original/file-20170803-23530-1qiofsh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The dinosaur tracks at Dinosaur Ridge in Colorado, in teh United Sates, are typical of the dinosaur footprints found today.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dinosaur_Ridge_tracks.JPG">Mediawiki/Footwarrior</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A better understanding</h2>
<p>This research changes our thinking about theropod movement, in three main ways. </p>
<p>First, using a continuous locomotor behaviour could have been beneficial to theropods by allowing them to run just that bit faster while maintaining stability, thus reducing bone and muscle stresses. </p>
<p>Second, the unique locomotor behaviour that characterises modern birds today may actually have been inherited in part from their theropod ancestors, showing more similarities between birds and dinosaurs than previously recognised.</p>
<p>And third, this study helps to paint a better picture of what extinct theropods were like as living animals. We now know that side-to-side limb movements were important for theropod dinosaur locomotion to increase stability while walking, and that theropods did not simply use human-like walking and running gaits.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/meet-savannasaurus-australias-newest-titanosaur-67383">Meet Savannasaurus, Australia's newest titanosaur</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This locomotory gait found in dinosaurs and birds may also be important for improving visual acuity by increasing head stability, particularly in the vertical direction.</p>
<p>This is important if we wish to create biomechanical models of theropod locomotion, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-40632751">such as one of <em>T. rex</em></a>, to address questions such as maximum speed capabilities or endurance.</p>
<p>It’s also important if we want to make sure that these types of dinosaurs are portrayed accurately in film, animation, computer simulations and other forms of popular culture.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81323/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christofer Clemente receives funding from an ARC DECRA Fellowship (DE120101503)</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Bishop received funding from the Australian Government (Research Training Stipend) and the International Society of Biomechanics (Matching Dissertation Grant). </span></em></p>The footprints of dinosaurs can tell a lot about how they moved about many millions of years ago.Christofer Clemente, Lecturer in Animal Ecophysiology, University of the Sunshine CoastPeter Bishop, Postdoctoral research fellow, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/690672016-11-24T12:03:24Z2016-11-24T12:03:24ZFossil footprints give glimpse of how ancient climate change drove the rise of reptiles<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146607/original/image-20161118-19371-u719n3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sphenacodon.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphenacodon#/media/File:Sphenacodon2.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>After lying largely forgotten in a museum for decades, a set of fossilised footprints have revealed a new glimpse of the world when reptiles began taking over from amphibians as the dominant land animals. Using cutting-edge technology, we have been able to identify the creatures that probably made the footprints <a href="https://peerj.com/articles/2718/">over 300m years ago.</a> This gives us a snapshot of what was happening as reptiles started diversifying and began the process that would see them become the dominant form of vertebrate life on land.</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham">Birmingham</a> used to be covered in lush tropical rainforest. This city in the British Midlands is today known as an ethnically-diverse melting pot of industry and innovation, famous for canals, heavy metal, Balti curry and friendly people with distinctive accents. But 310m years ago – long before the dinosaurs or the first mammals – the area was dominated by primitive plants like horsetails and club mosses, which grew into <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lepidodendron">towering 30 metre tall trees</a>.</p>
<p>A great diversity of early amphibians, insects, arachnids and other invertebrates lived among the lush vegetation. As the plants died, their remains formed thick layers of peat that over time were compressed to form <a href="http://www.palaeontologyonline.com/articles/2011/fossil-focus-coal-swamps/">rich deposits of coal that today underlie many parts of Britain</a>. These coal deposits would later power the industrial revolution that would make Birmingham a world leader in manufacturing.</p>
<p>But towards the end of the Carboniferous period (299m years ago), the world began to change. The global climate became increasingly dry and the rainforests of Europe began to contract and vanish. This rainforest collapse is believed to have caused a mass extinction among plants, while many groups of amphibians disappeared and were <a href="http://palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk/macro/Carb.html">replaced by early groups of reptiles</a>. </p>
<p>A collection of fossil footprints from Birmingham provides a unique window into this changing world. A schoolteacher, Walter Henry Hardaker, discovered the footprints in the early 20th century in a quarry in the Hamstead area in the northwest of the city. Since Hardaker’s work, they have lain largely ignored in the collections of the <a href="http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/facilities/lapworth-museum/index.aspx">Lapworth Museum of Geology</a> at the University of Birmingham – until our research team decided to restudy them as part of a research project funded by the <a href="http://www.palass.org/">Palaeontological Association</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146610/original/image-20161118-19345-c4pzo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146610/original/image-20161118-19345-c4pzo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146610/original/image-20161118-19345-c4pzo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146610/original/image-20161118-19345-c4pzo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146610/original/image-20161118-19345-c4pzo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146610/original/image-20161118-19345-c4pzo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146610/original/image-20161118-19345-c4pzo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Amphibian tracks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The footprints are preserved on about 20 red sandstone slabs, and provide a remarkable window into life in Birmingham at the end of the Carboniferous period. They formed as animals walked over muddy areas next to river channels, and were preserved by a covering of sand in a subsequent flood. Trackways show how the animals that lived there moved and skittered across the floodplain. Exquisite details of the environment are preserved, including raindrops and mudcracks that formed during drier intervals. </p>
<p>Our team, led by Birmingham Palaeobiology & Palaeoenvironments undergraduate student <a href="http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/gees/news/2015/20Oct15-luke-meade-footprints-study.aspx">Luke Meade</a>, used cutting-edge photogrammetric technology to study the footprints. Each trackway was photographed from numerous different angles, and special software was then used to turn these photos into high-resolution 3D models. <a href="https://zenodo.org/record/154382#.WDLWcGSDyOE">These models are freely available to download</a>, and can be used for educational purposes.</p>
<p>Colour-coding the models allowed us to produce topographic maps of each specimen that illustrate them in three dimensions. By comparing these models to Carboniferous tracks from other parts of the world, we were able to identify the types of animals that probably made the tracks. </p>
<h2>Amphibian decline</h2>
<p>Most common were amphibians, ranging from a few centimetres up to a metre or more in length. Alongside these amphibians lived two other vertebrate groups. Rare tracks show that large <a href="http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/synapsids/pelycosaurs.html">pelycosaurs</a> were present, probably superficially resembling modern day Komodo dragons. Pelycosaurs were part of the great evolutionary lineage that would eventually lead to mammals, including humans.</p>
<p>Smaller tracks document early representatives of another great branch of the vertebrate evolutionary tree, the sauropsid reptiles, which were small and lizard-like. These would ultimately diversify into <a href="http://www.evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/search/imagedetail.php?id=265&topic_id=&keywords=">everything from dinosaurs to lizards, turtles and birds</a>.</p>
<p>This snapshot of geological time captures an important evolutionary moment. Although amphibians were still abundant, their dependence on moist environments and bodies of water for spawning may have put them at a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11870322">disadvantage compared to the rapidly diversifying reptiles as the climate became increasingly arid</a>. Lying at the centre of a famously soggy island, the bustling city of Birmingham may today seem a far cry from this past world. But the rocks on which it sits surely still hold many untold secrets about daily life more than 300m years ago.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69067/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Butler receives funding from the Palaeontological Association. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Jones does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A set of fossils that lay forgotten in a museum are revealing new secrets about Britain’s prehistoric wildlife.Richard Butler, Senior research fellow, University of BirminghamAndrew Jones, PhD Candidate, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/679472016-10-31T15:24:43Z2016-10-31T15:24:43ZFrom dinosaurs to crime scenes – how our new footprint software can bring the past to life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/143912/original/image-20161031-15810-i8m51k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New software could help to reveal the story behind the imprint.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/dl2_lim.mhtml?src=I70NLYwnOxxx0J3bnWJt4g-1-28&id=435581044&size=medium_jpg">Shutetrstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A fossil footprint is one of the most evocative insights into the past. It can tell you not only about presence, but also about the biomechanics of the track-maker. We have studied ancient footprints from around the world for more than a decade – and perhaps most notably we were part of the team that discovered the second oldest human footprints at Ileret <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/323/5918/1197.full">in northern Kenya in 2009</a>. They date back 1.5m years and were likely made by <em>Homo erectus</em>.</p>
<p>Over the past ten years, we have witnessed unparalleled technological advances. We used to take a large, expensive and delicate optical laser scanner into the field, encased in a shroud specially made by a sail maker. I remember with horror how it exploded on the first day of one particular field trip.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/143914/original/image-20161031-15783-lv5q9z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/143914/original/image-20161031-15783-lv5q9z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143914/original/image-20161031-15783-lv5q9z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143914/original/image-20161031-15783-lv5q9z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143914/original/image-20161031-15783-lv5q9z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143914/original/image-20161031-15783-lv5q9z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143914/original/image-20161031-15783-lv5q9z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The world’s second oldest human footprint.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>It had been flown at great expense first to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, and then on a small plane which landed on a dirt strip. But then, on its first day out, it was connected to a generator supposedly that had been repaired in a back street Nairobi shop – and the sparks flew. My colleagues had to infill the excavation and it was another six months before I was back out with a repaired scanner and a new generator. </p>
<p>These days, thankfully, we need nothing more than a digital camera in the field. We take 20 pictures from different angles and I have a 3D model to rival those I once created by physically scanning the footprint. And with far fewer headaches. In fact, in October, Microsoft demonstrated a 3D scanner that works on a smart phone – technology is changing fast.</p>
<h2>Great leaps forward</h2>
<p>Despite this, 3D models have yet to make an impact in some areas. One of these is in the analysis of footwear evidence at crime scenes. Here, traditional methods of photography and casting still prevail and footwear evidence is no longer routinely collected at many crime scenes. Yet it has real power, especially when brought into 3D – and the 21st century.</p>
<p>Footwear impressions provide an important source of evidence from crime scenes. They can help to determine the sequence of events and – if distinctive due to the wear patterns – can link a suspect to multiple crime scenes. The value is not only as a tool in prosecution, but crucially in intelligence gathering often around petty crime. Unfortunately, it isn’t being routinely used – at least until now. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/143915/original/image-20161031-15934-1l0wggs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/143915/original/image-20161031-15934-1l0wggs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/143915/original/image-20161031-15934-1l0wggs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143915/original/image-20161031-15934-1l0wggs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143915/original/image-20161031-15934-1l0wggs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143915/original/image-20161031-15934-1l0wggs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143915/original/image-20161031-15934-1l0wggs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143915/original/image-20161031-15934-1l0wggs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Footprint: modelled digitally.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Working with a talented team of software developers, we have now translated academic know-how and software developed for research into a freeware package that puts 3D tools into the hands of everyone. Over the past year, with funding from a Natural Environment Research Council Innovation Award and with the help of the Home Office and the National Crime Agency, we have developed <a href="http://www.digtrace.co.uk">DigTrace</a> a bespoke software tool for footprint analysis. This tool is now freely available to police forces and forensic services both in the UK and overseas.</p>
<p>DigTrace is the first integrated freeware product that allows crime scene officers to capture 3D images of footwear impressions with nothing more than a digital camera and then to visualise, analyse and compare these traces digitally. It integrates fully with existing databases and approaches and we hope it will change the cost benefit equation of footwear analysis. </p>
<h2>From the extraordinary to the everyday</h2>
<p>The use of 3D modelling of this kind need not only be used in high capital crimes but can also be used to tackle the petty crime that often plagues society. Take, for example, a series of grass verges on the edges of car parks of ill repute. Using this tool, you can easily scan footprints in these areas. And if you can link the same piece of footwear to several of these disreputable areas, you know you are looking for one individual or group rather than several. The power lies in improving intelligence.</p>
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<p>We’ve been developing the software for the better part of a decade. What started as a collection of tools for addressing specific research tasks, built using a variety of technologies, has now been consolidated with the help of NERC into a standalone software suite. There is some neat mathematics that underlies the various 3D transformations required. Keeping things simple, however, has been the key to building trust with end-users who are not computer scientists. </p>
<p>At the heart of the approach is the idea of digital <a href="http://www.photogrammetry.com">photogrammetry</a> – take a series of images, identify common pixels in each and triangulate the pixels to define their location in 3D space. The result is a 3D pixel cloud that can be scaled, transformed and surfaced. We are actively researching the enabling technology here at Bournemouth University to develop new tools from this basic premise. Creating 3D models from video and even CCTV footage is in our sights. Our aim is to provide tools that make society safer, not just from high profile-crime, but that which affects everyday lives.</p>
<p>While DigTrace may help fight crime, it is also there for geologists and archaeologists to help them study dinosaur or ancient human tracks. The use of 3D data is a brave new world from printing in 3D to developing tools that visualise and analyse such data – and it is helping to bring the recent, and most distant, past to life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67947/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Robert Bennett receives funding from the UK, Natural Environment Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marcin Budka receives funding from the UK Natural Environment Research Council. </span></em></p>How to solve mysteries with an accessible computer program.Matthew Robert Bennett, Professor of Environmental and Geographical Sciences, Bournemouth UniversityMarcin Budka, Principal Academic in Data Science, Bournemouth UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.