Oldest human footprints found on volcano
Three primitive humans who scrambled down a volcano's slopes more than 325,000 years ago left their footprints fossilised in volcanic ash. If the ages of the trails are confirmed, they could be the earliest known footprints of our Homo ancestors.
Paolo Mietto of Padua University and his colleagues examined three tracks of footprints on the Roccamonfina volcano in southern Italy, known to locals as "devils' trails". "Because they occur in volcanic rock, they have always been considered supernatural," says Mietto.
The scientists say the footprints are fossilised in ash deposited by an eruption that has already been dated as 385,000 to 325,000 years old by radiometric techniques.
