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Britain's Eastern Coast Yields Oldest Human Footprints Outside Africa
schwit1 writes "They were a British family on a day out — almost a million years ago. Archaeologists announced Friday that they have discovered human footprints in England that are between 800,000 and 1 million years old — the most ancient found outside Africa, and the earliest evidence of human life in northern Europe. A team from the British Museum, London's Natural History Museum and Queen Mary college at the University of London uncovered imprints from up to five individuals in ancient estuary mud at Happisburgh on the country's eastern coast."
old news... It was everywhere Thursday. Salshdot is really pathetic now, even the non beta page...
There was a land bridge at the time - in fact until quite recently.
Sigs are so 1990s. No way would I be seen dead with one.
And why is it called Homo heidelbergensis? Heidelberg (for Americans: Heidelburg) is neither in Africa nor in Spain. (Yes, the first remainings of H. heidelbergensis were found on a graveyard(!) in Heidelberg, Germany).
I've got a good book that I can recommend that answers all these questions and more....
Questions like:
1. Can I sell my daughter into slavery? Yes!
2. Should I avoid all contact with women during her period? Yes!
3. Can I buy slaves from neighbouring nations? Yes!
4. Should I kill someone who works on a Sunday? Yes!
5. Can I eat shellfish? No!
6. I have a lazy eye. Can I go to church? No!
7. Can I get a haircut? No!
Yup, good book that.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
PhD archaeologist here.
It's incredibly common for formerly stable artifacts removed from a state of archaeo-geological stasis to rapidly degrade once exposed to a completely new set of formation factors. These can include air, light, water, or mechanical action.
I myself have seen Roman Fresco fragments fade from a state of brilliant color to near colorlessness in less than 20 seconds when exposed to air by excavation. Similarly, these footprints were protected from air, light, and most importantly hydrological action by a relatively hard and impermeable layer of overburden. As soon as that was removed, the friable substrate the footprints were in was rapidly washed away.