Question

The Laetoli footprints exhibited a convergent big toe.

True

False

Answer 1

The Laetoli footprints refer to the footprints of early humans discovered in 1978 in a place called Laetoli in Tanzania. The footprints are supposed to be 3.6 million years old and according to the timeline, the footprints belong to Australopithecus afarensis, an extinct early human species which is the ancestor of humans.

The foot prints reveal a big toe with convergent features and exhibited bipedal walking. This is similar to how modern humans walk. Divergent big toe is a feature of apes who require such toe for grasping food or branches for jumping and climbing, indicating that the footprints were human like and with convergent big toe.

The statement is true.