Laetoli Footprints Out of Step with Evolution | The Institute for Creation Research

Laetoli Footprints Out of Step with Evolution

Something or someone supposedly walked across volcanic mud 3.66 million years ago, leaving behind footprints discovered in modern-day Laetoli, Tanzania.1 Many who think modern humans evolved only about two million years ago have resisted interpreting these as human prints, because they are found in sediments that are "too old."

But a new analysis is again challenging the evolutionary interpretation of these prints. Were the tracks made by man, ape…or something strangely in between?

Repeated examinations of the biomechanics required to make this famous set of tracks have consistently shown that they must have been made by something almost exactly identical to modern human feet. An exhaustive study published in 1990, for example, found the "footprint trails at Laetoli site G resemble those of habitually unshod modern humans."2 And a 2010 analysis similarly showed that the Laetoli track maker (or makers) "walked with weight transfer most similar to the economical extended limb bipedalism of humans."3

In a recent study published online in Journal of the Royal Society Interface, researchers compared impressions made by modern man and modern apes with the Laetoli tracks, finding "strong support to those previous studies which have interpreted the G-1 prints as generally modern in aspect."1 That is, the tracks looked like they were produced by modern human feet. Creation researcher John Mackay said, "If these footprints had been found on a beach today no-one would identify them as anything but human."4

If the tracks look like they were made by man, and if study after study repeatedly concludes that the tracks are indistinguishable from those of a human, then why are researchers still questioning their origin? The only reason is that these tracks are out of step with the evolutionary story.

If humans made these tracks, then all the textbooks will have to be re-written to say that humans evolved a million and a half years earlier in evolutionary "time." How embarrassing that would be, especially because these older layers contain fossils of the candidate ape forms from which modern man supposedly evolved. Many evolutionists will not consider that the Laetoli tracks were left by a fully developed Homo sapiens, since that would mean that modern man descended from an ape-like creature that existed after modern man was already alive and walking!

To continue to fit these footprints into an evolutionary scenario, it would seem that the tracks would have had to be made by a creature that was human from the waist down, but ape-like from the waist up. Evolutionary baggage, not scientific data, has forced this warped and imaginative interpretation, for which there is little or no scientific support. Extinct ape-like creatures collectively called australopiths are routinely invoked as the real Laetoli print makers, but none of these fossil forms show feet, legs, or hips the same size and shape as those of humans.

Australopiths were very likely able to "walk" on two legs (i.e., they were bipedal), but they were probably better-suited for living in trees. Their fossilized skeletal remains clearly show that they did not walk with the uniquely human gait that characterizes the Laetoli tracks. For example, one technical review of the subject stated:

Australopithecine bipedalism was more similar to the way a chimp would walk upright than it was to the way a human does….It appears as if they moved their pelvis and lower limbs differently than we do, waddling as they walked.5

Like the human foot bone found in australopith layers,6 the human Laetoli footprints show that modern humans did not evolve millions of years after the earth was formed, but instead have coexisted with animals from the start, including extinct animals like australopiths.

Thus, science is consistent with the views on human origins expressed by Christ the Creator, who said, "But from the beginning of the creation [not billions of years after the beginning of the creation] God made them male and female."7

References

  1. Crompton, R. H. Human-like external function of the foot, and fully upright gait, confirmed in the 3.66 million year old Laetoli hominin footprints by topographic statistics, experimental footprint-formation and computer simulation. Journal of the Royal Society Interface. Published online before print July 20, 2011.
  2. Tuttle, R. H. 1990. The Pitted Pattern of Laetoli Feet. Natural History. 99: 64.
  3. Raichlen, D. A. et al. 2010. Laetoli Footprints Preserve Earliest Direct Evidence of Human-Like Bipedal Biomechanics. PLoS One. 5 (3): e9769.
  4. Mackay, J. Laetoli Footprints "Surprisingly Modern." Evidence News. Creation Research. Posted on evidenceweb.net August 3, 2011, accessed August 5, 2011.
  5. Murdock, M. 2006. These apes were made for walking: the pelves of Australopithecus afarensis and
    Australopithecus africanus
    . Journal of Creation. 20 (2): 104-112.
  6. Thomas, B. 2011. "Lucy's" New Foot Bone Is Actually Human. Acts & Facts. 40 (4): 17.
  7. Mark 10:6.

* Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.

Article posted on August 11, 2011.

The Latest
NEWS
August 2025 ICR Wallpaper
"And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart." (Galatians 6:9 NKJV) ICR's August...

NEWS
Quietly ''Devolving'' Tomatoes?
Apparently, evolution (and natural selection) can do almost anything: If new forms appear, the credit goes to creative natural selection; if old...

CREATION PODCAST
Five Unforgettable Lessons Learned from the Scopes Trial | The...
The Scopes Trial is one of the most famous court cases in American history, and this year marks its one hundredth anniversary....

NEWS
Yet Another Revised Age for the Land-Animal Ancestor
An allegedly vital piece of animal evolution was first discovered in 1984 in Scotland. Conventional scientists suggested the fossil of Westlothiana...

NEWS
Dr. James S. Johnson Goes Home to the Lord
Dr. James S. Johnson, chief academic officer and associate professor of apologetics for ICR’s School of Biblical Apologetics (SOBA), joined his...

NEWS
Pluto’s Largest Moon Looks Young
When the New Horizons space probe captured images of Pluto and its large moon Charon as it flew by in 2015, conventional scientists were surprised by...

NEWS
55-Million-Year-Old Tree Frog…Is Still a Tree Frog
In the 1990s, Australian paleontologists discovered fossil frog bones during a dig in Murgon, Queensland.1 This new species of frog—Litoria...

NEWS
Pastor and Longtime ICR Supporter Dr. John MacArthur Now with...
Faithful ICR supporter and pastor Dr. John MacArthur went home to be with the Lord on Monday, July 14, 2025, completing his 86-year pilgrimage.1...

CREATION PODCAST
Setting Sights on Scopes: The Truth Behind the Infamous Monkey...
The Scopes Trial is one of the most famous court cases in American history, and this year marks its one hundredth anniversary. Often,...

NEWS
Did Earthworms Rewrite Their DNA to Survive on Land?
An earthworm news story was recently posted that openly questions Darwin’s gradual and slow evolutionary progress in the living world.1...