Thursday, scientists announced that footprints resembling the ones left in wet sand by people had been discovered in Kenya, showing that 1.5 million years ago, human ancestors walked the way we do today, also having the feet of a modern man, anatomically speaking.

The remains of the footprints were found in sedimentary rock near Ileret in northern Kenya, scientists having informed that they had been left by human ancestor Homo erectus, also known as Homo ergaster.

The international team of scientists, who published their findings in the journal Science, reported that they had discovered a string of footprints, of which one had apparently been left by a a child, while all of them had been left by individuals walking on a muddy river bank.

The scientists estimated that the human ancestors had been approximately 5-foot-9 in height, drawing on the stride length.

Archaeologist David Braun of the University of Cape Town in South Africa, who is one of the researchers, stated in a telephone interview that the discovery had been rather creepy, since the footprints appeared like they could have been left by one of scientists when the site had been excavated.

The footprints also revealed that the individuals had a big toe parallel to the other toes, also displaying a human-like arch and short toes, which are signs of an upright way of walking.

Moreover, the size, spacing and depth of the footprints enabled the researchers to estimate the individuals’ weight, stride and gait, all of which were found to fall within the range of modern humans.