Experts think that human footprints discovered by scientists in England might be at least 800 thousand years old, which makes them the oldest evidence of human life in Northern Europe, and the earliest evidence of humans ever found outside of Africa. The footprints were discovered on a Norfolk Coast beach near the village of Happisburg by a team of researchers from the British Museum, the National History Museum and the Queen Mary University of London.
Experts think that human footprints discovered by scientists in England might be at least 800 thousand years old, which makes them the oldest evidence of human life in Northern Europe, and the earliest evidence of humans ever found outside of Africa.
The footprints were discovered on a Norfolk Coast beach near the village of Happisburg by a team of researchers from the British Museum, the National History Museum and the Queen Mary University of London.
There were about 50 footprints that evidence indicates belonged to two adult men, two or three women or teenagers, and three of four children that might be related to the Homo antecessor species, also known as pioneer man.
The presence of people that far north 800 thousand years ago, when the climate of the United Kingdom was much colder, is a significant archaeological find.
Chris Stringer, from the Natural History Museum, who worked on the study said: “This makes us rethink our feelings about the capacity of these early people, that they were coping with conditions somewhat colder than the present day.”
Archaeologists took three dimensional images of the footprints for analysis, but afterwards all of the footprints were washed away in high tide except for one.