Laetoli footprints were human (Talk.Origins)

Claim CC052:


 * The Laetoli footprints, dated 3.7 million years old, appear to be those of modern humans.

Source:
 * Gish, Duane T., 1985. Evolution: The challenge of the fossil record. El Cajon, CA: Creation-Life Publishers, pp. 174-176.

CreationWiki response:

Tuttle indicated that the prints are so human that they would have been classified as Homo sapiens if they had been dated as younger. But he is not the only source that shows just how human these prints are. The Smithsonian Institution provides additional support for the human-like nature of these prints: Even though they go on to attribute the prints to Australopithecus afarensis, their description shows just how human the tracks are. Furthermore, based on the Laetoli footprints, Australopithecus afarensis was often depicted with human-like feet.

It is interesting to note which side has the most to lose if their interpretation of the Laetoli footprints is wrong. If the Laetoli footprints are shown to be compatible with afarensis's ape-like foot, it is no problem for Creation Science since both humans and afarensis are thought to have lived together. If however the prints are human, evolutionists would have human beings 3.6 million years old, which would devastate their "family" tree.

Thanks to the fossil called "Little Foot" (fossil Stw 573) we now know that the joints of afarensis's foot bones showed the flexibility that suggests it was capable of grasping limbs, like chimpanzees do, and totally unlike a human foot. As a result, evolutionists now claim that the prints are compatible with an ape-like foot. While it has been shown that a chimpanzee makes a print with its big toe aligned with the others, it does not seem to do it in a manner or with a consistency that would allow afarensis's ape-like foot to have made the Laetoli footprints.

R.J. Clarke has stated that a newer set of prints were definitely ape-like, but there is a gap in the tracks which could suggest that the human and ape-like prints were made by different individuals. More research is needed on this.