ANCIENT MYSTERIES :.

ITALY'S 'DEVILS' TRAILS' ARE FOSSILIZED HUMAN FOOTPRINTS

  Posted March 12.03

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists in Italy say they have uncovered what are thought to be the oldest footprints of primitive humans.

The fossilised hand and footprints, known locally in Italy as the "devils' trails", belong to three early humans who were probably climbing down the side of the Roccamonfina volcano in southern Italy about 385,000 to 325,000 years ago.

"We believe that these tracks are the oldest human footprints found so far," said Paolo Mietto of the University of Padua in Italy.

They were made by primitive humans that walked upright with a free-standing gait and used their hands to steady themselves. Three tracks with prints show curve or zigzag patterns.

The prints, embedded in fossilised volcanic ash, are about 20 cm (eight inches) long and 10 cm (four inches) wide and belonged to primitive humans who were about 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 inches) tall.

"In some of the prints, the impressions made by the heel and ball of the foot are clear, and there are even small depressions that can be interpreted as toe impression," Mietto said in a report in the science journal Nature on Wednesday.

He added that older footprints of hominids, or members of the family of humans, that were made by more distant ancestors, date back 3.5 million years and were found in petrified volcanic ash at Laetoli in northern Tanzania.

Locals referred to the Italian footprints as the "devils' trails" because they thought they were supernatural.