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It’s been a big year for fossils. In March, scientists announced the discovery of a set of humanoid footprints in Greece that are at least 5.7 million years old, and in June, a team of researchers unveiled a cache of 158 well-preserved fossils in China dating back at least 2.1 million years.
These discoveries are providing new insights into our planet’s ever-changing climate and the evolution of early humans. But as exciting as they are, they also raise more questions than answers. Here’s a look at some of the biggest fossil mysteries scientists are hoping to solve in the year ahead.
What Do We Know About the Human Footprints in Greece?
In March, an international team of researchers announced the discovery of 57 tracks belonging to three different individuals who walked across a muddy stretch of land in present-day Greece between 5.7 and 5.8 million years ago. The footprints—which were preserved in fossilized mud —are thought to have been made by members of an as-yet unidentified hominin species that lived during the Late Miocene epoch. Given that they predate Homo sapiens by several million years, the Greek footprints are among the oldest human-like prints ever found outside of Africa.
While the discovery is providing fresh evidence about the dispersal of early hominins out of Africa, it’s also raising new questions about when and how these prehistoric creatures evolved certain key traits, such as bipedalism (the ability to walk on two legs). “If indeed these footprints were made by members of an as-yet unidentified hominin species,” says National Geographic paleoanthropologist Christopher Rynn,”it would push back the date for when bipedalism first evolved in our lineage.”
What Do We Know About the Newly Discovered Fossils in China?
In June, a team of Chinese and American researchers announced the discovery of 158 well-preserved fossils, including human bones and teeth, animal remains, and plant material, in China’s Zhiren Cave. The fossils date back to at least 2.1 million years ago and provide clues about what life was like during the Early Pleistocene epoch—a time when our planet was undergoing dramatic climate swings between warm periods and ice ages.
The fossils also offer insight into a pivotal moment in human evolution: Researchers believe they belonged to Denisovans—a recently discovered group of extinct hominins closely related to Neanderthals—who occupied Denisova Cave (located just 300 miles away from Zhiren Cave) until around 50,000 years ago. “The Denisovans are one of the most intriguing groups of extinct humans we know about,” says lead study author Xing Gao,”but there is still so much we don’t understand about them.”
Are We Getting Closer to Finding Another Major Cache of Dinosaur Bones?
In 2021, construction crews working on a highway expansion project near Mexico City unearthed tens of thousands of fossilized bones belonging to a previously unknown genus and species of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur that roamed North America 66 million years ago. The find was so significant that scientists halted construction on the highway so they could excavate and study the bones further.
Now that surveys of the area have been completed and construction has resumed, experts are cautiously optimistic that crews will uncover even more remains from this massive creature in 2022. “We may find isolated bones or even individual skeletons,” says Armand LaRocque,”a doctoral student at McGill University who specializes in studying titanosaurs.” But he warns that it’s impossible to predict exactly what—or how much—will be found. “It [the construction site] is very rich with dinosaur remains,” LaRocque adds,”but we have no idea what else is down there.”
These are just a few examples of some of the latest news about fossils in 2022. Exciting discoveries like these help us to better understand our planet’s history and the development of life on Earth. As we continue to explore our planet, we can only hope that there will be many more fascinating discoveries made in the years to come!