Tracks of Australians 20,000 Years Ago Found

Australian archeologists have discovered 457 human footprints dating from 20,000 years ago in Mungo National Park, 500 miles west of Sydney, a New South Wales spokesman said Thursday.

When the tracks were laid, at the height of the last ice age in swampland near the shores of Willandra Lakes, the habitat was a lush oasis in Australia’s arid interior. The lake system dried up 14,000 years ago. The archeologists believe one set of prints was left by a 6-foot-6 hunter who sprinted at almost 19 mph across silty clay toward an unknown prey with mud squeezing between his bare toes.