According to a new research, humans were walking on their two feet much earlier than what is believed until now. Scientists believed that the ability to walk upright on two legs was acquired about 1.9million years ago. However, scientists in the new study found human-like footprints dating back almost 3.7million years.

The foot prints numbering 11 were found preserved in rock sediment in Laetoli, Tanzania. They are through to be that belonging to Australopithecus afarensis, a primitive early human believed to be ancestor of modern human beings.

Scientists used computer simulations to compare footprints with that of modern humans to predict what kind of footprints would have been formed by different gaits. Lead researcher Professor Robin Crompton said: ‘It was previously thought that Australopithecus afarensis walked in a crouched posture, and on the side of the foot, pushing off the ground with the middle part of the foot, as today’s great apes do.” He added that the team found that the prints represented a type of bipedal walking by the front of the foot mainly using the front toe, like modern humans and unlike that of chimpanzees and other apes.