According to recent anthropological findings in eastern Africa, our ancestors had feet like our own today, verified by a 1.5 million-year-old set of footprints discovered in a sandy plain within two sedimentary rock layers.
According to John Harris, an anthropologist with the Koobi Fora Field School of Rutgers University, ” This discovery is the earliest proof of upright walking. Now we have the solid evidence for modern foot anatomy. In a sense it’s like putting flesh on the bones.”
Harris and his colleagues, have identified the footprints to possibly belonging to a member of Homo erectus, with familiarities to our own feet showing rounded heel, arch and the positioning of the big toe being parrallel to the other toes.
At a speaking engagement Dr. Jack Harris, professor of anthropology, Rutgers University will be highlighting insights into Bipedalism, Tools and Foraging in the Early Stages of Human Evolution.
He is one of the world’s foremost Paleoanthropologists studying the earliest stages of human origins. In particular, he studies the time interval 2.5 million to 1.5 million that sees the earliest evidence for stone tool manufacture and use, the incorporation of meat into the diet, the emergence of the genus Homo and the ranging patterns of our earliest ancestors to Eurasia.
John Harris will be speaking at The Rutgers Institute for Advanced Materials, Devices and Nanotechnology on May 3, 2010 - 3:30pm
EXTERNAL LINKS
Rutgers University outline of John Harris's Talk
Koobi Fora Field School of Rutgers University
Our Review of the PBS Documentary "Becoming Human"
