FRANCE: Could the lives of the eight billion people currently on Earth have depended on the resilience of just 1,280 human ancestors who very nearly went extinct 900,000 years ago?
FRANCE: Could the lives of the eight billion people currently on Earth have depended on the resilience of just 1,280 human ancestors who very nearly went extinct 900,000 years ago?
This photo shows Anjali Prabhat and Jeremy DeSilva, associate professor of anthropology at Dartmouth, excavating Site A footprints at Laetoli, Tanzania. Prehistoric footprints that have puzzled scientists since the 1970s are getting a second look: Were they left by extinct animals or by human ancestors? When famed paleontologist Mary Leakey first uncovered the footprints in Tanzania 40 years ago, the evidence was ambiguous. PHOTO BY SHIRLEY RUBIN VIA AP