stevevw
Member
I think you may have the wrong article or have misunderstood the original article and how they dated the footprints. The footprints are dated at 5.7 million years and have not used any radiometric dating or similar but used the layers they were found in which have already been securely dated and accepted for a long time because of the type of marine fossils in them above and below the footprints as well as the fact that the footprints also lie just below a destictive sedimentary rock layer formed when the Mediterranean sea dried up which has also been previously accepted as correct. The + or - period was for the time period of the total area not for the footprints themselves. The foot prints were actually ranged between 8.5 and 5.6 based on a number of factors so has a possible time period assessed as older than stated. But they conclude that the exact time period is 5.7ma in amoung those possibilities becuase of the closeness to the dry up of the Mediterranean sea which is a more secure measuremnet.
Its position close to the Hellenikon Group contact suggests that it represents the latest part of that interval, immediately prior to the desiccation event (Fig. 4b); to reflect this, we approximate its age as 5.7 Ma.
These factors have previously been accepted and used for dating other fossils and times so if it is good enough for that then it must be good enough for the dating of the footprints otherwise the many other datings and fossils in that period can also be excluded as wrong. But I doubt that because they contain a lot of other supports that need to be maintained. The fact is the layers have already been accepted as the correct time period from other sources over a very long period and have held up. As stated by the article
However, the Trachilos footprints are securely dated using a combination of foraminifera (marine microfossils) from over- and underlying beds, plus the fact that they lie just below a very distinctive sedimentary rock formed when the Mediterranean Sea briefly dried out, 5.6 million years ago.
Another thing that makes sense with the correct time period for dating is the fact that the footprints were found in sand during the Miocene period when there were savanahs which extended up from North Africa and around the eastern Mediterranean which had sandy enviroments. Crete where the footprints were found had not yet detached from the mainland making it possible for creatures to access the area where the prints were found.
During the time when the Trachilos footprints were made, a period known as the late Miocene, the Sahara Desert did not exist; savannah-like environments extended from North Africa up around the eastern Mediterranean. Furthermore, Crete had not yet detached from the Greek mainland. It is thus not difficult to see how early hominins could have ranged across south-east Europe and well as Africa, and left their footprints on a Mediterranean shore that would one day form part of the island of Crete.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/08/170831134221.htm
Possible hominin footprints from the late Miocene (c. 5.7 Ma) of Crete?
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