Photo by: Purwo Kuncoro

Blog

12.02.21

Mystery solved: footprints from Site A at Laetoli, Tanzania, are from early humans, not bears

Journal Article, In the News
The oldest unequivocal evidence of upright walking in the human lineage are footprints discovered at Laetoli, Tanzania in 1978, by paleontologist Mary Leakey and her team. The bipedal trackways date to 3.7 million years ago. Another set of mysterious footprints was partially excavated at nearby Site A in 1976 but dismissed as possibly being made by a bear. A recent re-excavation of the Site A footprints at Laetoli and a detailed comparative analysis reveal that the footprints were made by an early human
10.06.21

Grantee Spotlight: Patrick Gathogo

Grantee Spotlight
Dr. Patrick Gathogo is a geologist and research associate at Stony Brook University who is developing a new approach to geochronology that will extend the capability of the standard methods for dating hominid sites.