Washington, July 20 (ANI): Human-like feet were made for walking 2 million years earlier than thought, according to a new research.
Footprints made in Tanzania, East Africa, by our ancestors some 3.5 million years ago suggest they walked with an upright gait that is distinctly human.
The prints display a gait more like that of modern humans than the awkward posture adopted by chimpanzees, orang-utans and gorillas when they walk upright.
The footprint site of Laetoli contains the earliest known trail made by human ancestors and includes 11 individual prints in good condition.
Previous studies have been primarily based on single prints and have therefore been liable to misinterpreting artificial features, such as erosion and other environmental factors, as reflecting genuine features of the footprint.
The footprints are thought to belong to Australopithecus afarensis, a primitive early human that may be a direct ancestor of everyone living today.
Lead researcher Professor Robin Crompton, from the University of Liverpool, said: "It was previously thought that Australopithecus afarensis walked in a crouched posture and on the side of the foot, pushing off the ground with the middle part of the foot, as today's great apes do.
"We found, however, that the Laetoli prints represented a type of bipedal walking that was fully upright and driven by the front of the foot, particularly the big toe, much like humans today, and quite different to chimpanzees and other apes," he added. (ANI)
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