Latetoli: Tracing Our Footsteps into the Past

Latetoli: Tracing Our Footsteps into the Past

It is often said that retracing footsteps is a way to relive the past. When we lose an object, the most effective way to find it is by retracing our footsteps. Footprints can tell us a lot about the past. Footprints come in all shapes and sizes and are used for detective work, hunting purposes, and as archaeological evidence for prehistoric life. One of the greatest and most important archaeological discoveries of all time is the "Laetoli Footprints." Laetoli, located in the African country of Tanzania, is illustrious for its hominin footprints that date back to the Plio-Pleistocene. These footprints have revealed an immense amount about prehistoric life and have cultivated a lot of debate.

The archaeological site of Laetoli is located in northern Tanzania located about thirty kilometers south of another prominent site, Olduvai Gorge (White 1987). The Laetoli area lies in the eastern branch of the Great Rift Valley (Agnew & Demas 1998). British archaeologists Louis and Mary Leakey were working at Olduvai in 1935 when they were approached by a man named Saminu, who urged them to investigate deposits thirty kilometers south (White 1987). Thus, Laetoli was initially researched by Louis and Mary Leakey in 1935 (Leakey & Harris 1987). A mammalian canine and several other fossils were discovered early on. Originally, Louis Leakey identified these fossils as belonging to primates, but they would later be identified as hominin fossils (Harrison 2010). Four years later, Ludwig Kohl-Larsen and his wife recovered premolars, molars, and inscisors in the Laetoli region. At the time, all of the Laetoli discoveries seemed too

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primitive to be hominins and were therefore incorrectly attributed to apes and monkeys (Johanson & Eday 1981). The disappointment of not finding any hominin fossils led to a period of relatively little exploration at the Laetoli site.

Nevertheless, in 1974 the discovery of a new hominin premolar garnered interest at Laetoli again (White 1987). Consequently, Mary Leakey launched a new investigation campaign. (Johanson & Eday 1981, Harrison 2010). Remarkably, over 10,000 mammal specimens were subsequently discovered including 25 distinguishable hominin fossils (Harrison 2010). The first encounter of the "Laetoli Footprints" occurred in 1976. Members of Mary Leakey's team took a break from research and began playfully fighting…with elephant dung. Paleontologist Andrew Hill avoided a projectile of dung and then fell to the ground. Miracululously, he noticed unusual impressions on the ground preserved in a layer of volcanic ash. Footprints of hares, birds, and rhinos were quickly discovered (Willis 1992). Eventually, hundreds of animal footprints were discovered. Among these animals were elephants, giraffes, antelope, hyenas, and baboons. However, the most