Readers may remember the footprints found in Mexico that have
been dated to about 40,000 years BP. Geotimes has an interesting
story on the subject: In summer 2003, researchers Matthew
Bennett of Bournemouth University and Silvia Gonzalez and David
Huddart of Liverpool John Moores University in the United
Kingdom were dating and mapping the geology of the Valsequillo
Basin in Mexico, about 130 kilometers south of Mexico City, when
they came across what appeared to be footprints on the floor of
an abandoned quarry. Examining the site further, they found the
site littered with footprints, Bennett says — 269 individual
prints of humans and animals intermingled. Sixty percent of the
footprints appear to be human, with telltale arches and
impressions of the heels, balls and toes, and 36 percent of
those appear to be child-sized, according to the researchers,
whose work is in press in Quaternary Science Reviews. The
remaining 40 percent of the prints were from a variety of
animals, Bennett says, including dogs, big