About 50 human footprints almost 1 million years old were discovered in England last year, and new research published on Friday determined that these footprints were the earliest evidence of human footprints outside of Africa.
The footprints were discovered in the village of Happisburgh, Norfolk, by a team of experts from the British Museum, the Natural History Museum and Queen Mary University of London. Of the 50 footprints, only about a dozen were complete with details.
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The footprints may prove the existence of a group of early humans — one or two adult males, two or three adult females or teenagers and at least three or four children. The prints showed they were walking upstream, away from what would have been the estuary of the Thames River. Ancient pollen found at the site dated this walk during the interglacial period, right before the Ice Age. Temperatures at night would hang around a cozy 5 degrees Fahrenheit.
"These footprints are immensely rare and are the first examples of such great age to have been found outside Africa," British Museum archaeologist Dr. Nicholas Ashton, a member of the research team, told the The Independent. "They are of huge international significance because they give us a very tangible link to the first humans to inhabit northern Europe, including Britain."
The exact age of the footprints remains unknown, but archaeologists have two possible dates: around 850,000 years ago or 950,000 years ago.

In addition to the footprints, archaeologists also found the remains of at least a hundred animal species, including 15 types of mammals and 160 different species of insects, and more than 100 types of plants, according to Simon Parfitt of University College London and the Natural History Museum. "This is allowing us to reconstruct, in considerable detail, the environment in which these early humans lived," he added.
The 50 footprints were exposed last year during a low tide. The waters washed away some sand that revealed a former mud flat buried for hundreds of thousands of years.
These footprints, now 3D images, as well as the tools, will be on display at “Britain: One Million Years of the Human Story,” beginning Feb. 13 at the Natural History Museum in Britain.
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