Fossil hunters discover animal tracks dating back approximately 3 million years – a historic find in South Africa

South Africa has long been celebrated for its rich fossil record, preserving a window into the plants and animals that once inhabited the region. For the past 15 years, a research team at the African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience, Nelson Mandela University, has examined ancient footprints and traces left by animals during the Pleistocene Epoch, roughly 1.8 million to 11,700 years ago. During this period, the team documented more than 350 vertebrate tracksites along the coast, the oldest being approximately 400,000 years old.

While studying coastal tracks, researchers hypothesized that older fossilized traces might exist further inland. About 30 km from the coast, there are cemented sand dunes, now rock formations, dating back roughly 3 million years, known as the Wankoe Formation. These dunes presented challenges for fossil hunting: the rock surfaces were limited, often eroded or calcified, and much of the land was privately owned, requiring access permission.

The breakthrough came when team member Given Banda spotted a potential trackway near his community. This led to further investigations in the Grootbos Private Nature Reserve, where additional inland track-like features were observed. A detailed survey uncovered numerous tracks, including a confirmed trackway. These findings mark the first discovery of vertebrate tracks within the Wankoe Formation, indicating that the area is fossil-rich. These tracks are now recognized as the first documented Pliocene vertebrate footprints in southern Africa, dating between 5.3 million and 2.6 million years ago.

Significance of the Discoveries

The Wankoe Formation tracksites are important for three main reasons:

• They provide insights that could complement existing body fossil discoveries.
• They might reveal traces of early human ancestors.
• The tracks are pedestalled, raised above the surrounding surface, which is a rare phenomenon in fossilized footprints.

Nearby, the Langebaanweg site, also called the West Coast Fossil Park, contains a vast collection of extinct species. The combination of body fossils and trace fossils allows researchers to reconstruct past ecosystems more comprehensively. Coastal studies have revealed trackways of giraffes and giant tortoises, species previously unknown in the region from body fossils alone. Inland, some tracks hint at extinct species such as wolverines, aligning with fossil evidence from Langebaanweg.

Another potential avenue of research is exploring for hominin tracks. Coastal Pleistocene sites have already yielded over 20 hominin tracksites older than 40,000 yearsthe largest known archive in the world. Although no primate tracks have yet been found in the Wankoe Formation, the team recognizes the possibility and continues to search for evidence of early ancestors.

Unique Track Features

Many of the newly discovered tracks are pedestalled. This occurs when footprints are pressed into slightly moist sand, then wind removes surrounding loose material, leaving the compressed areas raised. This process, similar to effects seen in snow, makes pedestalled tracks rare globally and scientifically valuable.

Additional exploration has revealed that even weathered rock can preserve track profiles. Fossilized remains of trees, roots, and bones have also been discovered within the wind-blown sand layers, offering further avenues for study. Despite erosion and calcification, these tracks have survived, suggesting that many more could be uncovered with targeted exploration. The potential to find tracks of Pliocene hominins represents an exciting new frontier for research.

Author: Sophia Brooks