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Footprint impressions tell a tall story
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HE stood a majestic 165 centimeters and weighed around 45 kilograms — 5 foot 5 and 100 pounds in imperial measures — and maybe had a harem. That’s what scientists figure from the footprints he left behind some 3.7 million years ago.
He’s evidently the tallest known member of the prehuman species best known for the fossil skeleton nicknamed “Lucy,” reaching a stature no other member of our family tree matched for another 1.5 million years, researchers say.
The 13 footprints are impressions left in volcanic ash that later hardened into rock, excavated last year in northern Tanzania. Their comparatively large size, averaging a bit over 26 centimeters, suggest they were made by a male member of the species known as “Australopithecus afarensis.”
The prints were found at a site called Laetoli, which is renowned for another set of smaller footprints left by other Australopithecus afarensis individuals. Those made headlines in the 1970s as the earliest clear evidence of upright walking by our ancestors. The newly discovered prints are only about 150 meters away.
Researchers named the new creature S1, for the first discovery made at the “S” site.
From the footprints, they figured that he loomed at least 20 centimeters above the individuals who made the other tracks, and stood maybe 37 centimeters taller than a large Australopithecus afarensis specimen previously found in Ethiopia. “Lucy,” also from Ethiopia, was much shorter at about 107 centimeters.
The findings are described in a report released yesterday by the journal eLife.
Nobody knows the ages or sexes of any of the track makers, although the size of the latest footprints suggest they were made by a male.
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