The Homo erectus was walking just like we, the Homo sapiens, do.

 

A recent discovery of ancient human footprints in Africa proves that human beings have been walking as we do it today for about 1.5 million years.

 

The foot prints of Homo erectus (also known as Homo ergaster), one of the earliest ancestors of modern humans, were discovered by scientists near Ileret, in the Turkana basin, northern Kenya, where they were looking for fossils related to the human evolving. The foot prints discovered there, which resemble those left in wet sand by beach goers, prove that the Human ergaster had anatomically modern feet, scientists said. 

 

The team of scientists found a series of foot prints, including one of a child. The foot prints were discovered in two sedimentary layers. They were left there by the group of Human erectus while walking on a muddy river bank. The group of researchers estimated that, according to the stride length, the early species of humans were about 5-foot-9 (1.75 meters) in height.

 

This discovery also proves that the Homo erectus had the big toe parallel to the other toes, unlike the apes, which had the big toe separated and opposing to the other toes for better use in climbing trees. 

 

“The Ileret footprints constitute the oldest evidence of an essentially modern human-like foot anatomy," said the team of scientists who published details about their findings in the February 27 issue of the journal Science. 

 

The team of anthropologists, led by Professor John W.K. Harris, excavated the site in northern Kenya between 2006 and 2008. Mr. Harris is an anthropology professor at Rutgers University and the State University of New Jersey, a member of the Center for Human Evolutionary Studies and director of the Koobi Fora Field Project. 

 

The lead scientist on the excavation team was Matthew Bennett, a professor of environmental and geographical sciences at Bournemouth University in the United Kingdom.

 

“It's filling in a real gap in our knowledge about when people developed a modern foot anatomy," Bennett told ABC News. "It brings back the age of when essentially a modern footprint was in operation."