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Researchers found a whole lot of fossilized footprints, which have been uncovered by sediment erosion, throughout a survey of an historical lake in Saudi Arabia’s Nefud Desert.
In among the many 376 historical shapes found round Alathar lake, consultants recognized animal footprints, together with prints belonging to horses, camels and elephants — notable as a result of elephants appeared to have gone extinct in the Levant about 400,000 years in the past.
But extra surprisingly, researchers mentioned they found seven hominin footprints, which, if confirmed, may be proof of the earliest dated proof of the human species in the Arabian Peninsula.
“We immediately realized the potential of these findings,” Mathew Stewart, one of many research’s lead authors from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, mentioned in an announcement.
“Footprints are a unique form of fossil evidence in that they provide snapshots in time, typically representing a few hours or days, a resolution we tend not [to] get from other records,” he added.
Researchers consider that the footprints date to the final interglacial interval — a time which noticed humid circumstances that facilitated human and animal motion throughout a area which was in any other case comprised of deserts.
Fossil and archeological data present that these circumstances aided human migration from Africa to the Levant, researchers mentioned.
“It is only after the last interglacial [period] with the return of cooler conditions that we have definitive evidence for Neanderthals moving into the region,” Stewart mentioned. “The footprints, therefore, most likely represent humans, or Homo sapiens.”
After finding out the footfalls, consultants consider the dense focus of tracks suggests animals gathered across the lake because of dry circumstances and diminishing water, whereas people may have used the world for water and foraging.
“We know people visited the lake, but the lack of stone tools or evidence of the use of animal carcasses suggests that their visit to the lake was only brief,” Stewart added.
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