Laetoli

Laetoli is a site in Tanzania, dated to the Plio-Pleistocene and famous for its hominid footprints, preserved in volcanic ash (Site G). The site of the Laetoli footprints is located 45 km south of Olduvai gorge. Professor Terry Harrison, a physical anthropologist at New York University, has continued research at the site since the late 1990s.



Date
The footprint-bearing layers are Pliocene in age, dated by the K/Ar method to 3.7 million years ago (m.y.a.).''

The footprints
A line of hominid fossil footprints, discovered in 1978 by Mary Leakey, Richard Hay, Tim White and their team, is preserved in powdery volcanic ash from an eruption of the 20 km distant Sadiman Volcano. Soft rain cemented the ash-layer (15 cm thick) to tuff without destroying the prints. In time, they were covered by other ash deposits. The hominid prints were produced by three individuals, one walking in the footprints of the other, making the original tracks difficult to discover. As the tracks lead in the same direction, they might have been produced by a group -- but there is nothing else to support the common reconstruction of a nuclear family visiting the waterhole together.

The footprints demonstrate that the hominids walked upright habitually, as there are no knuckle-impressions. The feet do not have the mobile big toe of apes; instead, they have an arch (the bending of the sole of the foot) typical of modern humans. The hominids seem to have moved in a leisurely stroll.

Other animals
Other prints show the presence of twenty other animal species, among them hyenas, wild cats (Machairodont), baboons, wild boar, giraffes, gazelles, rhinos, several kinds of antelope, hipparion, buffalo, elephants (of the extinct Deinotherium genus), hare and birds. Traces of raindrops can be seen as well. Few prints are superimposed, which indicates that they were rapidly covered up again. Most of these animals are represented by skeletal remains in the area as well.''

Human remains
The German anthropologist Ludwig Kohl-Larsen was the first to go to Laetoli to look for fossil remains. In 1934 he found the jaw of Australopithecus afarensis.

The remains of 13 hominids have been found, mainly mandibles and teeth. They show affinities to the female skeleton Lucy from Hadar, Ethiopia. Most scholars classify them as Australopithecus afarensis, but some stress the greater similarity to Homo and prefer to speak of ''Homo sp. indet.''

A rather complete skull found at Ngaloba in 1976 has been dated to ca. 120,000 to 100,000 years ago. It is very modern anatomically, with a cranial capacity of ca. 1200 cm&sup3;, but the forehead is still very low.''

Artifacts
No artifacts have been found in the vicinity.''