ITWire

The team includes Matthew R. Bennett, John W.K. Harris, Brian G. Richmond, David R. Braun, Emma Mbua, Purity Kiura, Daniel Olago, Mzalendo Kibunjia, Christine Omuombo, Anna K. Behrensmeyer, David Huddart, and Silvia Gonzalez.

They are from the: School of Conservation Sciences,  Bournemouth University, Poole, U.K., Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, U.S.A.; Center for the Advanced Study of Hominid Paleobiology, Department of Anthropology, George Washington University, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.; Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.

And, the Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa; National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya; Department of Geology, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya; Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.; and School of Biological and Earth Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, U.K.

Dr. John Harris, of Rutgers University and one of the authors of the study, stated, “The Ileret footprints add to evidence that early Homo erectus had a body adapted to traveling long distances, at a time when food sources were patchily distributed across the landscape.” [Science News: “Modern feet step back 1.5 million years]

However, the Science News article states that a controversy still exists as to whether these footprints are from Homo erectus or Homo ergaster, or an earlier ancestor that had a more ape/human-like appearance as that found in unearthed evidence from the species Australopithecus afarensis.

Please read the Science News article for more information on this scientific discussion.

Additional information and photographs on the Ileret, Kenya excavation site is found on the Archaeology.about.com website "Ancient Human Footprints of Ileret."