Tracking the First of Our Kind

1. Tracking the First of Our Kind Pressed into an ancient dune that became a rock, tracks discovered in South Africa preserve the shape of feet like our own. The rock has been dated back to 117,000 years ago, placing these footprints among the oldest known fossilized traces of anatomically modern humans. Images and text courtesy of National Geographic, Rick Gore, and Kenneth Garrett.

2. Tracking the First of Our Kind Images and text courtesy of National Geographic, Rick Gore, and Kenneth Garrett.

3. Tracking the First of Our Kind Archaeologist Hilary Deacon believes that the people who periodically sheltered here between 60,000 and 120,000 years ago not only looked modern but were capable of modern thinking and behavior too. A spearpoint lodged in an extinct giant buffalo’s vertebra proves that Klasies hunters were advanced enough to vanquish a creature armed for counterattack with horns more than nine feet across. Images and text courtesy of National Geographic, Rick Gore, and Kenneth Garrett.

4. Tracking the First of Our Kind Preceding the footprint maker, a robust cranium between 400,000 and 500,000 years old from Saldanha shows heavy brow ridges. Images and text courtesy of National Geographic, Rick Gore, and Kenneth Garrett.

5. Tracking the First of Our Kind This 260,000 year old Florisbad skull approaches the modern H. sapiens form. Images and text courtesy of National Geographic, Rick Gore, and Kenneth Garrett.