Evolutionists Tripping Over Human Tracks on Crete
These can’t be hominid tracks. They are far too early! Well, then, who made them?
Per Ahlberg and his friends publishing in the Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association have gotten their field of paleoanthropology in hot water. Writing in The Conversation, Ahlberg, from the University of Uppsala, says, “Our controversial footprint discovery suggests human-like creatures may have roamed Crete nearly 6m years ago.” Six million years? That’s way back before humans were supposed to have evolved. This not only throws the evolutionary timeline out of whack, it threatens the “out of Africa” hypothesis and suggests (to evolutionists) that humans evolved in Europe.
The human foot is distinctive. Our five toes lack claws, we normally present the sole of our foot flat to the ground, and our first and second toes are longer than the smaller ones. In comparison to our fellow primates, our big toes are in line with the long axis of the foot – they don’t stick out to one side.
In fact, some would argue that one of the defining characteristics of being part of the human clade is the shape of our foot. So imagine our surprise when we discovered fossil footprints with remarkable, human-like characteristics at Trachilos, Crete, that are 5.7m years old. This research, published in the Proceedings of the Geologist Association [sic], is controversial as it suggests that the earliest human ancestors may have wandered around southern Europe as well as East Africa.
The track-makers didn’t have to swim or boat to get there, because according to evolutionary geology, Crete was part of the mainland back then. Still, creatures with human-like feet were not supposed to exist that far back. The human-like tracks at Laetoli, Africa are said to be 3.66 million Darwin Years old—far younger than the Trachilos set, but already too early in the timeline for comfort. Evolutionists tried to depict ape-like versions of Lucy with human-like feet. That was bad enough. How can they deal with tracks 2 million years older?
Also at The Conversation, Susannah Thorpe comments on this discovery. She tries to figure out the possible non-human creatures that might have made the tracks which are, to some observers, slightly ambiguous. Without access to the 50 tracks found, she suggests it was gorillas:
So what or whom made the Trachilos prints? They are certainly convincing as real footprints, from the few pictures provided in the paper. The age estimate of 5.7m years also seems correct. The prints do have a narrow heel compared to our general idea of what human footprints look like, as the authors note. But that could easily be matched by the shape of human footprints walking in wet mud, such as in an estuary – which may have been the case. They have a big toe placed quite close to the others, like our own, but so do the feet of gorillas.
Ahlberg’s team, though, feels strongly that paradigms must change:
For those unable to see beyond Africa as the “human cradle”, these tracks present a considerable challenge, and it has not been easy to get the discovery published. Some have even questioned whether the observed features are footprints at all. However, collectively, the researchers behind this study have published over 400 papers on tracks, so we are pretty confidence [sic] we know what they are.
New Scientist chimes in. “A set of ancient footprints has been found on a Greek island. They are extremely old – 5.7 million years – yet they seem to have been made by one of our hominin ancestors,” Colin Barras writes. “At that time, hominins are thought to have been confined to Africa. The discovery supports the controversial suggestion that they may also have been living in eastern Europe.” Here’s the rub:
The shape of the prints suggests similarities with hominin feet. Most obviously, they were clearly left by an animal that walked on the soles of its feet, as hominins do, rather than just on its toes. The prints show the track-maker had five toes, with the big toe particularly well developed – another hominin feature. And there is no evidence of claw marks, consistent with the fact that hominins have toenails rather than claws.
But surprisingly, fossil and geological evidence indicates that the footprints are 5.7 million years old. That means they predate the period during which hominins are conventionally believed to have left Africa by about 4 million years.
Are the “mystery feet” human? Barras quotes Robin Crompton (U of Liverpool) admitting, “almost without doubt actual footprints of a bipedally-walking animal.” One possibility seriously entertained is convergent evolution: an ape that evolved human feet independently from those yet to evolve in Africa: “perhaps another distantly-related ape evolved similar feet 5.7 million years ago.”
One anthropologist thinks it is “certainly plausible” that humans evolved in Europe, migrated into Africa, then later migrated out of Africa. That might allow the storytellers to rescue the old out-of-Africa hypothesis.
You can tell how serious this is by the fact that the authors had trouble publishing the find. Nobody wanted to believe their eyes. It’s no problem if these tracks are young. So much trouble is caused by the moyboys who refuse to give up their beloved millions of years. Look at the anguish; they would rather have animals evolve human-like feet twice than to even consider creation! Who believes in miracles now?