This Somehow Seems Appropriate -- On US Indigenous Peoples' Day... But A "Crete" Edition?

The caveats, upfront: an extraordinary claim ought to be backed by extraordinary. . . evidence. And this doesn't meet that standard, just yet. The claim out of a beach on the northwestern end of Crete is that several hominids walked in the sand about 6 million years ago, there. That would predate "Lucy" in what is now Tanzania, Africa. . . by over 2 million years. [Almost certainly, there are some pro-european forces at work here (as ever, vis-a-vis old US Columbus Day), as well. . . even if only in the semi-scientific writings -- of these London-based journalists.]

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.

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