![]() ![]() Reynolds speculated that perhaps the child was ill and needed to be taken to another camp where someone could help him or her. "Motivation is something we can't really speak to in the fossil record, but it's something we want to know," Reynolds told Live Science. Related: Photos: Stone Age human footprints discovered There are no child footprints on the return southbound journey, suggesting that perhaps the trip was taken in order to drop off the child somewhere. At times, the child's footprints appear, perhaps during rest breaks when the adult put the squirmy toddler down. Northbound, the adult tracks are a little asymmetrical, evocative of a woman holding a child on one hip. Next to them are the remains of the return south/southwest return journey, which appears to have been made by the same person, judging by the size of the footprints and the stride length.Īlong the way, the adult tracks are sometimes accompanied by the footprints of a child under 3 years old. The tracks run north/northwest in a straight line in one direction before disappearing into the dunes. As the water evaporated, it left behind the minerals dolomite and calcite, which created rocky molds of the footprints. These tracks were originally made on wet ground. ![]() Bustos had noticed possible signs of footprints on the flat, arid playa landscape while patrolling the park, then a national monument.Įxcavations revealed fossilized footprints just below the loose white gypsum sand. The trackway was first discovered in 2017, thanks to National Parks employee David Bustos, who invited a group of scientists - including Reynolds' husband, Matthew Bennett, a geoscientist at Bournemouth University - to view the site. ![]()
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