Laetoli Footprints

Laetoli is one of Africa’s most important palaeontological sites. It is located on the southern edge of the Serengeti Plains within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and far north of Lake Eyasi. The site contains a long series of Plio-Pleistocene, predominantly volcano-sedimentary deposits rich in archaeological and paleontological remains, which are overlain by Precambrian metamorphic rocks.

The paleoanthropological relevance of the entire area has been recognized since the mid-1930s, although Laetoli became known in the 1970s as a result of exciting discoveries such as the Holotype and other remains. It has exceptional evidence of the earliest bipedal hominid traces, which date back 3.6 million years. About 3.6 million years ago in Laetoli, two early ancestors of humans walked through wet volcanic ash. When the nearby volcano erupted again, subsequent ash layers covered and preserved the oldest footprints of early humans.

Today, the Laetoli footprints are the oldest known footprints of early ancestors of humans in the world. The Laetoli Footprints, according to archaeologists, exhibit three distinct tracks of an upright walking hominid known as Australopithecus afarensis. The entire footprint trail is almost 27 meters long and comprises approximately 70 early human footprint impressions. The Olduvai Museum has replicas of these footprints.

Kohl Larsen, a German entomologist, first studied the Laetoli area in the 1920s, yielding a few fossils. The hominid footprints were discovered in 1974 by a team led by Mary Leakey, and excavations were conducted in 1978 and 1979.  The site is open to researchers interested in human origins and cultural development. Every year, researchers from local and foreign universities visit the site to work on various geological bed exposures that make up more than fifty sites.

What to See?

• Footprints of early humans