A team of researchers from different institutions coordinated by paleobiologist Kevin G. Hatala, from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, in Leipzig (Germany), has found that Homo erectus already walked like modern humans 1.5 million years ago . To determine this, Hatala and his collaborators have studied a set of footprints belonging to these extinct hominids that have been preserved in the vicinity of the town of Ileret, in Kenya.
The fossil trail was discovered in 2009 and, according to these experts, it was originated by at least twenty individuals of that species. Its extraordinary state of conservation has allowed them to analyze it thoroughly. Thus, as indicated in a study published in the journal Scientific Reports , the footprints are the same length and shape as ours and, in essence, they are indistinguishable from those that a barefoot person would leave today.
Moreover, from them, these scientists have been able to measure the distribution of weight in the limb and infer how it rested on the ground or even its way of running. In this way, they have discovered that, like us, Homo erectus could walk long distances without consuming too much energy .
The tracks have also made it possible to know the body mass of the specimens and establish that there were several adult males in the group . For these experts, this implies that this species already had a certain degree of tolerance or that males could cooperate with each other, a characteristic feature of modern humans that distinguishes us from other primates.
Image: Kevin G. Hatala
