Oldest Known Fossil Footprints Discovered On Crete By Polish Researcher Challenge Established Theories Of Human Evolution
AncientPages.com – The oldest known human-like footprints
recently preserved in Trachilos, Crete are nearly 6 million years old
and represent one of the recent and most fascinating discoveries
in paleontology.
Fossil footprints that challenge established theories of human
evolution and are approximately 5.7 million years, were made at a time
when previous research puts our ancestors in Africa – with ape-like
feet.
“The
footprints, left one after the other, indicate that this creature was
perfectly adapted to moving swiftly across the land in a two-footed
position. From this point of view, we are dealing with our family, our
relatives”. Image: Gerard Gierliński /Polish Geological Institute
The discovery was made by Polish palaeontologist, Dr. Gerard
Gierliński from the Polish Geological Institute – State Research
Institute.
“The story of human evolution begun already 5.5 million years ago,
and, interestingly, it was not in East Africa, but the Greek island of
Crete” – said Dr. Gerard Gierliński during the press conference.
The earliest previously known footprints of ancient human relatives
have been identified in Africa (Laetoli, Tanzania). Scientists
determined that they had been left about 3.6 million ago by the
Australopithecus species.
In the light of the latest research by Polish palaeontologists, it can not be ruled out that the first hominins appeared in Europe.
Dr. Gierliński discovered the oldest known footprints of human
relatives in 2002, while on vacation in Crete. Wide-ranging
international research was launched in 2010 and continued for 6 years.
The age of the sediments from Trachilos, in which footprints had been
preserved, was estimated by Dr. Zofia Dubicka from the University of
Wroclaw. Her research shows that they are about 5.7 million years old.
The
footprints were discovered by Gerard Gierlinski (1st author of the
study) by chance when he was on holiday on Crete in 2002. Gierlinski, a
paleontologist at the Polish Geological Institute specialized in
footprints, identified the footprints as mammal but did not interpret
them further at the time. In 2010 he returned to the site together with
Grzegorz Niedzwiedzki (2nd author), a Polish paleontologist now at
Uppsala University, to study the footprints in detail. Together they
came to the conclusion that the footprints were made by hominins.
Credit: Andrzej Boczarowski
“I have the feeling that it\’s about bipedalism (…) because it was
bipedalism that set the course of evolution that has brought mankind of
today”, ” said Dr. Gierliński. He added that it was impossible to say
with certainty whether these were our ancestors or rather relatives who
were not in the human family tree (so-called evolutionary dead end).
“The footprints, left one after the other, indicate that this
creature was perfectly adapted to moving swiftly across the land in a
two-footed position. From this point of view, we are dealing with our
family, our relatives”.
Co-author of the study, Dr Andrzej Boczarowski from the University of
Silesia in Katowice, Poland added that bipedalism was probably the
answer of evolution to changes that were taking place at that time in
the natural environment and thus, human became a species that penetrated
practically the entire planet.
“We think that many groups of monkeys, independently of each other,
could achieve bipedalism in their evolution. One of these lines leads to
us, but all the others had expired. The one from Trachilos could be
such an extinct line and not lead to us at all” – said .
Researchers have determined that the footprints belonged to ancient
human relatives because of the location of the toes. Asked about the
“shoe size”, the scientist stated that it was “very small – ladies or
children”.
“The front of the foot – where the toes are, is basically the same as
the 2 million years younger younger footprints from Laetoli – of
australopithecus, as Homo erectus from Kenya, as contemporary footprints
of Homo sapiens” – Dr. Boczarowski said.
“In general, in the front we have a human foot”.
The back of the foot, however, was different – the heel of the Cretan
prints is not as elongated and rounded as that of later humans. It was
also shorter, as the researcher pointed out. On this basis, he stated
that it was an “evolutionarily very distant” being.
“What is very dangerous for us today is the fact that we actually
opened a door. We opened the door to a new interpretation of the origin
of ancient man. (…) We give new possibilities for the scenario”
-emphasised Dr. Boczarowski.
The researchers found a total about 50 prints of several individuals.
AncientPages.com
http://www.ancientpages.com/2017/11/11/oldest-known-fossil-footprints-discovered-on-crete-by-polish-researcher-challenge-established-theories-of-human-evolution/