A new analysis of the 3.7 million-year-old Laetoli footprints in Tanzania suggests that Australopithecus afarensishad feet similar to those of modern humans, in addition to an upright gait. “They are more human prints than ape prints, and I don’t think that can be debated anymore,” said Robin Crompton of the University of Liverpool.

Mike Waters of Texas A&M University has found an archaeological site in central Texas that he says was first used between 15,000 and 15,500 years ago. “For thousands of years, this site was an ideal place to make camp. There’s a spring-fed creek that never runs dry and the kind of stone that’s perfect for making tools,” he explained.

In Colorado, students are excavating the Meeker Home, where the founder of the city of Greeley lived in the late nineteenth century.

Rock art estimated to have been engraved 12,000 years ago has been discovered in a cave in southern Germany. Scholars think the images were used in fertility rites.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Wednesday, July 20, 2011. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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