What 100,000-year-old footprints in Morocco tell us about early humans
Al Jazeera
Scientists say a group of adults and children walking along a rocky shoreline likely left the prints.
What can indentations in the ground from ages ago tell us about our early ancestors? A lot, it turns out.
In January, an international team of scientists from Morocco, France, Germany and Spain published details of a fascinating discovery: a set of well-preserved human footprints believed to be 100,000 years old.
The footprints are thought to be from a group of five individuals and were found on a rocky beach in a northern Moroccan town.
The research, published in the science journal Nature, adds to a growing body of work that’s helping scientists piece together the evasive, true origins of the human race. But while their discovery is an archaeological feat, coastal erosion threatens the existence of these ancient tracks.
Here’s what we know about this latest find and about other ancient human traces that scientists have discovered so far.
