Scientists stumble upon 90,000-year-old human footprints on Moroccan beach. Here's what it indicates

Scientists in Morocco stumbled upon two trails of 90,000-year-old ancient human footprints which remained preserved on a beach and are likely to be one of the largest and best-preserved trackways ever found in the world.

According to a study which was recently published in the journal Scientific Reports, the researchers had discovered the footprint site close to North Africa's northern tip in 2022. 

"Between tides, I said to my team that we should go north to explore another beach," said study lead author Mouncef Sedrati, who was also an associate professor of coastal dynamics and geomorphology at the University of Southern Brittany in France, while speaking to Live Science. 

"We were surprised to find the first print. At first, we weren't convinced it was a footprint, but then we found more of the trackway," he added.

The site's analysis, which is the only human trackway site of its kind to have been discovered in North Africa and the Southern Mediterranean, revealed two different trails which contained a total of 85 human footprints which appeared to have been stamped on the beach by a group of at least five early modern humans.

Optically stimulated luminescence dating, which is a technique which helps in determining when some specific artefact or minerals were last time exposed to sunlight or heat, was used by the team.

Based on the age of the fine grains of quartz which were present in bulk on the sand of the gently sloped beach, the researchers figured that a multigenerational group of Homo Sapiens walked on the beach around 90,000 years ago and created the pathways. 

As per the study, the event occurred during the Late Pleistocene, which was also called the last ice age and ended around 11,700 years ago.

"We took measurements on-site to determine the length and depth of the prints," Sedrati said.

"Based on the foot pressure and size of the footprints, we were able to determine the approximate age of the individuals, which included children, adolescents and adults," the author added. 

The researchers credit the excellent preservation of the ancient impressions to a number of factors, including the beach's layout and the long reach of the tides for "the final preservation of the footprints," according to the study.

"The exceptional thing is the position of the beach on a rocky platform that is covered in clay sediments," Sedrati said. "These sediments create good conditions to preserve the tracks on the sandbar while the tides rapidly buried the beach. That's why the footprints are so well preserved here," he added.