Trachilos Footprints

The widespread consensus is that the ancestors of modern humans evolved in Africa. However, one relatively recent discovery in Greece may have put a hole in that theory. Discovered by paleontologist Gerard Gierliński in 2002 while on vacation, he concluded that the Trachilos footprints were created by a bipedal hominin similar to a human at least 5.6 million years ago. That would be two million years older than previously found ones in Africa. More recent estimates put the prints at around 6 million years old.

If correct, such a discovery would turn conventional understanding of human evolution upside down! As such, it has understandably generated enormous controversy within the paleontological community. Gierliński claimed that upon submitting his findings to scientific journals, many refused to even consider them for proper peer review. Some researchers have estimated the footprints to be only around 3 million years old, while others suggest that they may belong to another ape which evolved bipedalism convergently. Others have even suggested that they are not even consistent enough to be actual footprints.