•

Laetoli footprints

•

Tanzania

•

first evidence of bipedal walking by early hominin

•

preserved in volcanic layer

•

not only has hominin footprints but other mammals

•

lions

•

antelope

•

200 square kilometers

•

1894 reported in scientific literature

•

Oscar Bauman

•

Austrian geographer

•

was looking for the source of the Nile River

•

he got lost

•

collected fossils

•

took them back to Germany, at Berlin Naturkunde Museum

•

1940s

•

more fossils collected

•

more scientists wanted to come

•

Louis and Mary Leakey was planning a German/British research trip, but was cancelled because of the war

•

1974 Mary Leakey came back

•

collected fossils

•

first hominin fossils

•

LOH 4

•

prototype for Australopithecus afarensis

•

3.85 and 2.95 million years ago

•

Lucy's species

•

1978 footprints

•

first evidence of upright posture and bipedal evidence in hominins

•

3.5 or 3.6 million years ago

•

the more the prints are exposed

•

there could be more than two individuals

•

probably four individuals with same stature and same height

•

the entire footprint trail is almost 27 meters long and includes impressions of about 70 early human footprints

•

1978 Paul Abell joined Leakey's team and found the 27 meter-long footprint trail

•

the early humans that left these prints were bipedal and had big toes in line with the rest of their foot

•

his means that these early human feet were more human-like than ape-like

•

apes have highly divergent big toes that help them climb and grasp materials like a thumb does

•

the footprints also show that the gait of these early humans was heel-strike followed by toe-off, the way modern humans walk