Footprints in Saudi Arabia Dated to 85,000 Years Ago

News May 15, 2018

(Michael Petraglia, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History)
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Saudi Arabia footprints
(Michael Petraglia, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History)

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA—Gulf News reports that footprints made by several adults have been found by an international team of researchers in Saudi Arabia’s northwestern Tabuk region, and dated to at least 85,000 years ago. The fossil of an adult human finger dated to about 90,000 years ago was also recently discovered in the region. Although the area is now a desert, the footprints were made on the banks of an ancient freshwater lake bed, and suggest that the hunter-gatherers may have been fishing. The age of the footprints also supports the idea that modern humans may have left Africa earlier than previously thought, and traveled through Sinai. To read about another recent discovery in Saudia Arabia, go to “Hot Property.”

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