The Zapata Footprint Mystery: Claims of a Human Footprint Dating Back 290 Million Years

The Zapata Footprint is an alleged human footprint embedded in a Permian rock in New Mexico.

Referred to by some as the New Mexico track or the Zapata track, a number of conspiracy theories have been woven around it.

A Permian Mystery?

Those in favor of its authenticity (?) argue it is the ultimate evidence that humans walked on Earth hundreds of millions of years ago, completely ignoring what modern science tells us.

According to experts, one of the earliest defining human traits, bipedalism, the ability to walk on two legs, evolved over 4 million years ago. As noted by the Smithsonian, humans first evolved in Africa, and much of human evolution occurred on that continent. The fossils of early humans who lived between 6 and 2 million years ago come entirely from Africa.

More importantly, early humans first migrated out of Africa into Asia between 2 million and 1.8 million years ago.

They entered Europe somewhat later, between 1.5 million and 1 million years.

Species of modern humans populated many parts of the world much later.

For instance, people first came to Australia presumably within the past 60,000 years and to the Americas within the past 30,000 years or so. Read the free article.