Neanderthal footprints – an insight into our humanity

Wonderful. We humans today have anywhere from 2-5% (depending on the individual) Neanderthal DNA. I love the idea of being part Neanderthal!

Scientists have found hundreds of perfectly preserved footprints, providing evidence that Neanderthals walked the Normandy coast in France. The prints suggest a group of 10-13 individuals, mostly children and adolescents, were on the shoreline 80,000 years ago. Neanderthals, the closest evolutionary cousins to present-day humans and primates, have long been thought to have lived in social groups, but details have been hard to establish.

The 257 footprints discovered at Le Rozel in western France give a snapshot of how Neanderthals lived and suggest they may have been taller than previously thought.

Jérémy Duveau, a co-author of a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said the prints were left in muddy soil and quickly preserved by wind-driven sand.

“It was incredible to observe these tracks, which represent moments in the lives of individuals, sometimes very young, who lived 80,000 years ago,” said Duveau, of the French National Museum of Natural History.

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The footprints were found among what the team called “abundant archaeological material” revealing evidence of animal butchery and tool-making. They date back to a time when only Neanderthals lived in western Europe.

Neanderthals’ feet were broader than those of modern humans. From the size of the footprints at Le Rozel, the researchers estimated the size of the individuals who made them and then inferred their age.

Some of the prints appear to have been made by a taller individual. Remains of skeletons previously suggested Neanderthals were around 150–160cm tall, but this individual may have measured 175cm (5ft 9in).