The secrets of our history can appear and disappear without warning.
A team of researchers found ancient footprints on a desolate beach, and before they could even think, they vanished without a trace. Most archeological findings take weeks or even months to fully extract from the ground, but this finding disappeared as quickly as it was found.
What were these ancient footprints showing us?
Archaeology has unearthed many secrets over the past century
The days of Lara Croft and Indiana Jones are far from over, albeit they have somewhat changed.
Studying the Earth and all its mysteries has evolved from treasure hunting to a more scientific and pragmatic approach. Rigorous study of ancient discoveries has reshaped the story of life. From the Terracotta Army discovered by Chinese farmers to the Dead Sea Scrolls, our planet is loaded with ancient secrets.
And as our scientific prowess increases, the findings we are making are astonishing.
The discovery of Lucy, a 3.2 million-year-old hominid skeleton unearthed in Ethiopia, proves that our oldest cousins walked upright long before they had developed larger brains.
The rate at which we are making new discoveries is getting faster by the day
As new 3D imaging technology becomes more readily accessible, the pace of new discoveries is now much more rapid than at any point in history.
In the United States, teams of archaeologists have found ancient “footprints” of a massive body of water older than the Great Lakes. A large proportion of the discoveries made in history have come from teams of researchers from the best universities around the world.
The history book of life is a worldwide collaboration, as new findings are made in every corner of the planet.
By studying ancient DNA, we have found how and when some of our long-lost cousins died out after being overtaken by our species. Adapt or die, right? But as one team from a Scottish University found out, when studying fossils, time is of the essence.
So what’s so special about the new discovery in “The Auld Country”?
Scotland is an ancient land that has been documented thoroughly over the last few decades, but the recent discovery made by a team from the University of Aberdeen proves that time waits for no man.
Two thousand years to unearth footprints from another civilization
The team from the University of Aberdeen found several ancient footprints on an isolated beach in Scotland.
Similar findings have been made in the UK, but never in the land of Kilts. The team found evidence of these ancient footprints that have been dated back 2,000 years, approximately at the time when the Roman invasion of Scotland took place.
While some recent discoveries have proven that not all of our ancestors emerged out of Africa, this is a more European revelation.
On the shores of Lunan Bay in Angus, the team found the 2,000-year-old footprints, but had to act quickly to be able to study and document them.
Mother Nature played no games that day, forcing researchers to think fast and act faster
As the team started to dig up the footprints, the iconic Scottish weather crept in. The team had to work in severe conditions. Wind was blowing at a breakneck speed of around 55 mph. And they only had roughly 48 hours before the sea would claim the footprints from its tides.
They worked like the Flash to get as much out of the discovery as they could. Just a couple of days later, the footprints had vanished. By digging up certain parts of the Earth, we have found everything from the origins of writing to evidence of ancient footprints from the period of the Romans, albeit in Scotland.
What will the next “footprints” in time reveal to us?