ABOUT 20,000 years ago, at least a dozen people ran, trotted and walked across soft ground in south-eastern Australia. Their fossilised footprints are the world’s largest collection from Pleistocene times and the oldest yet discovered in Australia.
Matthew Cupper of the University of Melbourne and colleagues identified 457 prints from at least 12 individuals, both children and adults. The size and spacing of the prints indicate that some of the people were almost 2 metres tall, and were running at up to 20 kilometres per hour. Holes and lines next to the footprints suggest that the runners might have…
