The Devil's Trails: Middle Pleistocene Human Footprints Preserved in a Volcanoclastic Deposit of Southern Italy

Avanzini, Marco; Mietto, Paolo; Panarello, Adolfo; Angelis, Marco De; Rolandi, G.

doi:10.1080/10420940802470458

Cited by 30 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Consequently, the average footprint length can be considered to be the most reliable parameter for the estimation of body dimensions (White, 1980; Tuttle, 1987; Tuttle et al, 1990; Dingwall et al, 2013; Avanzini et al, 2008; Bennett et al, 2009; Roberts, 2009). …”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

New footprints from Laetoli (Tanzania) provide evidence for marked body size variation in early hominins

Masao

Ichumbaki

Cherin

et al. 2016

eLife

114

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Laetoli is a well-known palaeontological locality in northern Tanzania whose outstanding record includes the earliest hominin footprints in the world (3.66 million years old), discovered in 1978 at Site G and attributed to Australopithecus afarensis. Here, we report hominin tracks unearthed in the new Site S at Laetoli and referred to two bipedal individuals (S1 and S2) moving on the same palaeosurface and in the same direction as the three hominins documented at Site G. The stature estimates for S1 greatly exceed those previously reconstructed for Au. afarensis from both skeletal material and footprint data. In combination with a comparative reappraisal of the Site G footprints, the evidence collected here embodies very important additions to the Pliocene record of hominin behaviour and morphology. Our results are consistent with considerable body size variation and, probably, degree of sexual dimorphism within a single species of bipedal hominins as early as 3.66 million years ago.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.19568.001

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

New footprints from Laetoli (Tanzania) provide evidence for marked body size variation in early hominins

Masao

Ichumbaki

Cherin

et al. 2016

eLife

114

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“…The chabazite cement may have formed when meteoric water percolated through the flow after it cooled (Mumpton, 1973;Passaglia and Vezzalini, 1985). Avanzini et al (2008) infer that the ash was cohesive and partially lithified when the tracks were made.…”

Section: Roccamonfina Italy (Pleistocene)mentioning

confidence: 97%

“…The so-called "Devil's Trails" associated with the Roccamonfina Volcano in southern Italy have been shown to be a series of hominid trackways imprinted on a substrate referred to as the "Brown Leucitic Tuff" (BLT; Mietto et al, 2003;Avanzini et al, 2008). The tuff is vitric phonolitic leucite-tephrite to leucite-trachyte (Luhr and Giannetti, 1987).…”

Section: Roccamonfina Italy (Pleistocene)mentioning

confidence: 97%

A Survey of Tetrapod Tracksites Preserved in Pyroclastic Sediments, with Special Reference to Footprints of Hominids, Other Mammals and Birds

Houck¹,

Lockley²,

Avanzini

2009

Ichnos

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Pyroclastic sediments provide an unusual and favorable medium for the recording, burial, and preservation of tetrapod tracks and other traces. Twenty-two tracksites were reviewed for the purpose of determining how these deposits contribute to track formation, burial, and preservation. These include Jurassic sites in Argentina and Mexico, Cretaceous sites in Korea, Miocene sites in Mexico and the United States, Pliocene sites in Tanzania, Pleistocene sites in Mexico, Korea, and Italy, and Holocene sites in Mexico, Turkey, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Nicaragua, and the United States. Twelve of the sites contain hominid tracks.Tracksites occur most commonly in reworked tephra on the shorelines of rivers, lakes, and seas. They also occur on pyroclastic falls, flows, and surges, and on lahars. Most tracksites are in volcanic arcs, especially around the Pacific Rim. A few occur in continental rifts or near intraplate volcanoes. Most older tracksites (Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Miocene) occur in silicic tephras such as rhyolite and dacite. The younger tracksites are mostly associated with basaltic tephra, though other compositions are also represented.Volcanic eruptions contribute to formation of substrates suitable for recording tracks by producing abundant fine-grained pyroclasts that interact physically and chemically with water to become cohesive. Hiatuses between eruptions provide time for tracks to accumulate, and in some cases, to lithify rapidly. Both physical processes (drying and compaction) and chemical processes (mineral precipitation) appear to be involved in early lithification. Eruptions also contribute to burial of tracks through rapid sedimentation and aggradation that typically follow a pyroclastic eruption. Multiple, closely spaced track horizons are common in pyroclastic sequences. Most tracksites are buried by either fallout tephra or reworked, waterlain deposits. Others are buried by lahars, pyroclastic flows and surges, or windblown ash. Upon exhumation pyroclastic deposits contribute to the formation of bedding planes through clay drapes, friable ash layers, and biotite-rich layers. Precipitation of authigenic minerals contributes to erosional resistance within beds. Bedding plane formation and erosional resistance facilitate discovery and study of tracks.

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“…Only few hominin ichnosites older than 60 ka are known in Europe so far (Bennett and Morse, 2014; Panarello, 2016): Happisburgh (UK) (Ashton et al . 2014), Terra Amata (France) (de Lumley et al ., 2011), Foresta‐Tora e Piccilli (Roccamonfina volcano), (Italy) (Mietto et al ., 2003; Avanzini et al ., 2008), Le Rozel (France) (Duveau et al ., 2019), Vârtop Cave (Romania) (Onac et al ., 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1 and 2). Since the discovery in 2001 of the actual nature of what popular tradition has been naming for decades as “Ciampate del Diavolo”, (Mietto et al ., 2003; Avanzini et al ., 2008) the fieldwork and research undertaken under the direction of one of us (PM) by means of increasingly developed and advanced techniques of collection, analysis and interpretation of ichnological data, led to new discoveries, and to the creation of extremely detailed datasets useful for the correct interpretation of the nature and significance of the Foresta footprints and trackways and their chronology (Mietto et al ., 2003; Avanzini et al ., 2008; Panarello et al ., 2017a,b; 2018). Among the most recently published research are the dating of the fossil human pathway, the oldest known to date (Panarello et al ., 2017b), some large mammal footprints (Panarello et al ., 2017a; Palombo et al ., 2018), the updated description of Trackway B (preliminarily reported by Mietto et al ., 2003 and Avanzini et al ., 2008) including that of some fossil prints of other anatomical parts of the human body, unknown to date in literature (Panarello, 2019, submitted), and the first detailed description and analysis of the only known Middle Pleistocene handprint (Panarello et al ., 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the devil's tracks: unexpected news from the Foresta ichnosite (Roccamonfina volcano, central Italy)

Panarello

Palombo

Biddittu³

et al. 2020

J Quaternary Science

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The Foresta ichnosite is well known for preserving some of the oldest human fossil footprints recorded in Europe so far. This research aims to: i) describe new footprints that are larger than those already reported, some of which form a new trackway that moves in the opposite direction to all the others; ii) announce the discovery of some stone tools also in the surroundings of the Foresta ichnosite. The new results increase the total number of human fossil footprints to at least 81, specify the direction and the number of footprints of Trackway C, and identify three new directions of walking at the site. More compelling and complete estimates of the dimensional range of all ichnological evidence enables us, furthermore, to estimate the number of trackmakers walking on the trampled surface as a minimum of five, one of them likely being an adult male. The general shape of all the recorded footprints suggests that the Foresta trackmakers share some similarities with those at Sima de los Huesos, and belong to the same taxonomical group as the Ceprano skull. All the new evidence enables us to better understand the presence of hominin populations in the Roccamonfina volcano area during the Middle Pleistocene. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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The Devil's Trails: Middle Pleistocene Human Footprints Preserved in a Volcanoclastic Deposit of Southern Italy

Cited by 30 publications

References 18 publications

New footprints from Laetoli (Tanzania) provide evidence for marked body size variation in early hominins

New footprints from Laetoli (Tanzania) provide evidence for marked body size variation in early hominins

A Survey of Tetrapod Tracksites Preserved in Pyroclastic Sediments, with Special Reference to Footprints of Hominids, Other Mammals and Birds

On the devil's tracks: unexpected news from the Foresta ichnosite (Roccamonfina volcano, central Italy)

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