5.7 Million Year Old Ancient Human Footprint 27

5.7 Million Year Old Ancient Human Footprint

5.7 million year old footprint Year Old Footprint Found In Greece

A controversial discovery of a human type (bipedal) footprint was found in western Crete Greece far from the origins of humanity in Africa, which dates back to the late Miocene period, 5.7 million years ago. 5.7 Million Year Old Ancient Human Footprint 29

This was long before the species of upright walking hominid and had paleoanthropologists/anthropologists walking in a maze of controversial questions circling their head.

Some suggest the footprints came from an earlier evolved non-hominin primate or it could’ve been just an early hominin human species that predates the homohabili (Proto modern man).

All of this adds up to something very interesting,” says Per Ahlberg, a paleontologist at Uppsala University in Sweden and a co-author of the new study. Ahlberg and his colleagues concluded that the prints were made either by an early hominin or by an unknown nonhominin primate that coincidentally evolved human-like feet.

Earthmagazine.org/Mysterious-miocene-bipedal-footprints-found-crete/

A few researchers got backstage passes from the Greek government in order to conduct their research in 2002.

Gerard Gierlinski of the Polish Research Institute in Warsaw, discovered this ancient mystery which opposes the views of the mainstream narrative of human history.5.7 Million Year Old Ancient Human Footprint 31

Along this journey, Gerard paired up with Per Ahlberg at the Uppsala University of Sweden to analyze these remarkable tracks.

The oldest hominin foot fossils we have are from the 4.4-million-year-old Ardipithecus ramidus. But Ardipithecus had an opposable big toe that would have left a distinctive pattern in its footprints. The Trachilos track-maker appears to have held all five toes parallel.

Newscientist.com/Controversial-footprints-suggest-we-evolved-in-europe-not-africa/

This controversial find puts a wrench in the engine of the mainstream view of the human evolutionary timeline.




 5.7 Million Year Old Footprint: Evolutionary Timeline Of Man 

  • 55 million years ago – Evolution of the first primitive primate
  • 15 million years ago – Hominidae (great apes) evolve from gibbon
  • 8 million years ago – First gorillas, later chimps
  • 5.5 million years ago – Ardipithecus, the proto-human’ shares traits with chimps and gorillas
  • 4 million years ago – Ape like humans, the Australopithecines appeared.
  • 3.9-2.9 million years ago – Australoipithecus afarensis lived in Africa.  
  • 2.7 million years ago – Paranthropus
  • 2.3 million years ago – Homo habalis  first appears first thought to emerge from Africa
  • 1.85 million years ago – First ‘modern’ hand emerges
  • 1.8 million years ago – Homo ergaster begins to appear in fossil record
  • 1.6 million years ago – Hand axes become the first major tech innovation
  • 800,000 years ago – Early humans control fire and create hearths.
  • 400,000 years ago – Neanderthals first begin to appear and spread across Europe and Asia
  • 200,000 years ago – Homo sapiens – modern humans – appear in Africa
  • 40,000 years ago – Modern humans reach Europe

Their research concluded there’s no mistake that there’s a human foot with the big toe in line with the other tarsal bones, whereas the hominoid ape has an opposable thumb extending out laterally in order to grab branches.

Even though both man and ape are known to walk up right, there’s morphological differences between a ape hominid’s foot vs a human’s foot.

“There’s something slightly funny about the big toe,” says Ahlberg. “Its position and shape are very similar to those of a modern human, but it seems to be more mobile,” a bit like the opposable thumb of a chimpanzee.

Newscientist.com/Controversial-footprints-suggest-we-evolved-in-europe-not-africa/

5.7 Million Year Old Footprint: Sedimentary Analysis (Study of Foraminifera And A Natural Disaster That Took Place 5.7 Million years Ago)

Researchers conducted an analysis on the sedimentary layers and found well preserved marine organisms called foraminifera which date back as far as 450 million years ago.

There’s a marine succession (An abrupt change in the ecosystem through a natural disaster) at one of layers formed by removing the Mediterranean’s basin layer in the course grained sedimentary rocks during the Messinian Salinity Crisis. 

The crisis was a geological event during which the Mediterranean Sea went into a cycle throughout the latter part of the Messinian age of the Miocene epoch that occurred 5.7 million years ago. 

5.7 Million Year Old Ancient Human Footprint 33

Eleven foraminifera samples were taken at intervals through approximately 20 m of succession, spanning the tracked horizon and terminating just below the Hellenikon Group conglomerate(Figs. 1d and 4). All these samples yield both Hastigerina pelagica and Globigerina pseudobesa (Figs. 4 and 5), constraining the samples to a time interval between 8.5 Ma (late Miocene,Tortonian) and 3.5 Ma.

We conclude that the succession at Trachilos can be securely assigned to the Miocene and dated to the time interval 8.5 to 5.6 Ma based on: (1) the end-Miocene Hellenikon Group is the only terrigenous incursion into the marine succession of western Crete during this time interval;

Researchgate.net/Possible-hominin-footprints-late-Miocene-c57Ma-Crete

The researchers took 11 samples of foraminifera from the sedimentary rock layer which each weight about 0,5 kg and processed using Glauber’s salt and imaged by an SEM (Scanning Electronic Microscope).

The Crisis sedimentary successions at the track-site comprises conglomeratic beds, local breccia horizons (skeletal debris and lithoclasts), silty limestones, fine-grained, calcareous sandstones.

5.7 Million Year Old Ancient Human Footprint 35

There were more findings within the assemblage fossils of the sedimentary such as fishbones, gastropods, ostracod, echinoids.

 The fossil assemblage also includes bivalves, gastro-pods, echinoids, ostracods, foraminifera, fish bones and scales, and marine mammal bones.

The emergent horizon forms an exposed surface about 21 m in length and 6 m in maximal width (Fig. 3d), and can also be identified in section in neighbouring outcrops. The immediately underlying strata contain moderately large ripples with microbial mat-related structures (wrinkles) on their crests, suggesting deposition in extremely shallow water (Eriksson et al., 2010;Banerjee et al., 2014

Researchgate.net/Possible-hominin-footprints-late-Miocene-c57Ma-Crete




5.7 Million Year Old Footprint: Foot morphology

The track forms by a series of reactions between the shape/anatomy of the foot pattern through a substrate elastic enough to form and rigid enough to keep the impression.

5.7 Million Year Old Ancient Human Footprint 37

Digital morphometric measurement was taken on the site along with laser scans, revealing a 3-D image of 400 square meters.

The area filled with 50 individual prints, which allowed the researchers to collect analytic data about the shape of the footprints.

The characteristics of the Trachilos footprints that need to be explained are: bipedality and plantigrade posture; pentadactyly with entaxony and an absence of claws; the distally attached and non-divergent bulbous first digit and short lateral toes; and the presence of a distinct ball in some of the tracks.

The morphometric analysis suggests a closer affinity to hominin track outlines than to those of extant non-hominin primates.

Researchgate.net/Possible-hominin-footprints-late-Miocene-c57Ma-Crete

The Trachilos tracks contain a well-defined ball and lacks claws which the primate ape completely lacks.

It’s plausible the tracks formed by an extinct family of the homos, but if that’s the case, then this completely shatters the mainstream view of the humans dating back only 2.5 million years ago.

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Bear feet have similar morphological impressions like the Trachilos track and sometimes the claws leave no marks behind, but there’s still distinct difference such as the width of the bottom of the foot and the short stubby toes in comparison show in the image fig.12.

Bears and certain other Carnivora have pentadactyl hind feet with heart-shaped soles and short toes, somewhat similar to the print morphology described here, and their claws do not always leave impressions. However, carnivore prints are rarely entaxonic, and certainly never to the degree exhibited by the Trachilos prints

Chimpanzees produce characteristic L-shaped footprints with a wide gap between the hallux and curled lateral digits.

Non-hominin primate prints typically lack a ball impression.

Researchgate.net/Possible-hominin-footprints-late-Miocene-c57Ma-Crete




References