A Prehistoric Family? Looking For Clues In The Mud

A Prehistoric Family? Looking For Clues In The Mud
by Barbara J. King
February 13, 201410:44 AM

Imagine five people out walking together along a river. Three are adults, the other two of juvenile age. As they walk together, they leave footprints in the mudflats.

Eight-hundred-thousand years later, a team of 12 archaeologists led by Nick Ashton of the British Museum and University College London announced its discovery of those footprints.

Media across the globe, including NPR, reported the news.

These footprints are the oldest known outside of Africa — a monumental discovery for archaeology and anthropology, made possible because severe coastal erosion in that region of England is, in the archaeologists' words, "both revealing and rapidly destroying sites that are of international significance."

The scientists can't know for sure which human ancestors made the footprints, because no skeletal remains have been found in association with them. Even though the footprints are referred to as "human," we know their makers weren't us — Homo sapiens, or anatomically modern humans. Our species evolved only around 200,000 years ago in Africa and arrived in the what is now the United Kingdom at around 40,000 years ago. A species called Homo antecessor is a leading candidate for the footprint makers.

More:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2014/02/13/275904399/a-prehistoric-family-what-footprints-can-and-can-t-tell-us