Scientists have recently discovered footprints in northern Kenya proving that human ancestors have been walking upright for at least 1.5 million years.

The footprints, left by a Homo ergaster, one of the earliest ancestors of modern humans, were found near the Turkana basin, where researchers had been searching for fossils in order to determine the way human beings had evolved throughout time.

Matthew Bennett, a professor of environmental and geographical sciences at Bournemouth University in the United Kingdom, who was the lead researcher of the excavation team, stated that the discovery had accounted for a thrilling breakthrough.

The footprints display the characteristics of a modern man’s feet, such as short toes, a big toe parallel to the others and a high arch, while they also offer cogent evidence that ancestors walked the way we do today, the weight being transferred from the heel of the foot to the ball and afterwards to the big toe.

After discovering the footprints, the scientists compared the scanned photos they had taken to the images of the last discovery of footprints, which took place thirty years ago.

The previous footprints were found at the Laetoli site in Tanzania and they belonged to the Australopithecus, a more primitive human ancestor dating back  3.5 million years ago.

The footprints of the Australopithecus displayed characteristics that were closer to those of the apes.

The international team of scientists, who published their findings in the journal Science, estimated that the human ancestors had been approximately 5-foot-9 in height, drawing on the stride length.

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.