...Archaeologists working on the eastern coast of England have found a series of footprints that were made by human ancestors sometime between 780,000 and one million years ago. Pressed into ancient estuary mudflats now hard with age, these prints are the oldest ones known outside of Africa, where humanity got its start.
Scientists discovered the prints early last May at the seaside site of Happisburgh in Norfolk. High seas had eroded the beach sand to reveal the ancient mudflats beneath. The team had to act quickly to record the footprint surface before it, too, eroded. They used a technique called multi-image photogrammetry and laser scanning to capture the footprints in three dimensions. By the end of May the prints were gone, thanks to the unrelenting surf....