Getty Institute to Salvage Earliest Footprints of Upright Humans : Evolution: Conservation organization steps in to protect site in Tanzania that has eroded over 3.5 million years.
The Getty Conservation Institute has stepped in to preserve the earliest known evidence of humanity’s ability to walk upright--a fossil trail of footprints that have survived 3.5 million years only to be jeopardized today by the scouring wind and destructive tree roots.
Experts in human origins consider the footprints, near Laetoli in northwestern Tanzania, to be one of the most important finds in the study of human evolution. Although the discoverers reburied the fossil trail as a protective measure after several years of study, the remote site has eroded to the point at which the footprints soon may be damaged. Getty officials announced Thursday that they have reached an agreement with the government of Tanzania on a three-year project to refurbish and protect the site.
“We are very pleased to have the Getty Conservation Institute as a partner in this endeavor to preserve the footprints at Laetoli, which have such great importance not only for our country, but for all humanity,” said Philemon Sarungi, Tanzanian minister of education and culture.
Discovered in 1977 by scientists working with fossil hunter Mary Leakey, the ancient trail is less than 90 feet long. It preserves the tracks of two pre-human primates, who apparently walked together, across a stretch of moist clay and ash on a rainy day more than a million years before the first human ancestor used tools.
Their footprints--along with those of a third individual who walked a short distance away--were quickly covered over by layers of fine ash from a nearby volcano. Moistened by the rain, the ash turned to a kind of cement that preserved the tracks. The imprint of the tiny raindrops is still visible in the volcanic tuff.
The tracks helped settle a long scientific dispute over how humanity’s earliest ancestors moved by providing direct evidence that they walked with the upright free-striding gait of modern Homo sapiens.
“There is this incredible connection established between the people who walked there so long ago and yourself,” Getty Director Miguel Angel Corzo said of the site. “It is a magical place. You can imagine that this place is the beginning of it all.
“We want to make sure that this is preserved for future generations,” he said.
Getty experts were first asked to examine the site two years ago, after Tanzanian government officials had become alarmed over the damage caused by saplings sprouting along the buried trackway and the effects of erosion. In subsequent visits, the Getty workers dug up part of the track to assess the damage and discovered that tree roots had already injured several of the footprints.
During the next two years, an international team of archeologists, conservators and other specialists recruited by the Getty will start excavating the tracks, remove the roots and stabilize the soil. Once they determine how best to ensure that no new growth will threaten the footprints, the entire trail will be reburied.
