But do recall that Lucy is an actual skeleton -- pretty large portions of one, in fact. Bones. With cranial features and dimensions, in addition to a footprint. There are (so far) no fossilized bone fragments, on Crete.
True, the fossilized prints in the sandstone do look like they may have a ball on the mid foot, and a suggestion of an arch, as well as a straight (as opposed to opposed) big toe (or thumb, as apes then had). But without any suggestion of a skull, it seems a stretch to infer that these were the "original version" hominids, from whom Lucy either descended directly -- or became some later off-shoot branch. So for now, I am willing to grant that this is a very-early version of. . . something walking upright -- but I'm not ready to align this band with the clearly humanoid Lucy finds, reliably dated some two million years later. Here's a bit (out of London's Monday morning papaers):
. . .Around 50 of the track marks were identified near the village of Trachilos on the western edge of the Greek island of Crete back in 2002. . . .
They were found in a type of sedimentary rock that formed at the shore of the ancient Mediterranean Sea. . . .
The 'Trachilos footprints' are almost 2.5 million years older than the tracks attributed to an ancient pre-human species called Australopithecus afarensis, from Laetoli in Tanzania, Africa. A. afarensis is the species to which the famous early human ancestor 'Lucy' belongs. . . . .
In fairness, not much more should be claimed. They are footprints -- but where they fit in the line that ultimately becomes. . . us, is completely unproven. They are very old -- but it is even possible that it was a mutated grouping of apes. . . and not much more.
Clearly they died out, as Crete became an isolated island of its own. And no evidence puts these same feet in what became central Europe -- or Asia, or Africa, for that matter. . . before Lucy. So we wait. . . grinning. Ever, grinning: more to come.
नमस्ते
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